The Emory University baseball team added another win to its ledger Tuesday night as the Eagles defeated in-state rival LaGrange College, 12-3, at Cleaveland Field in LaGrange, Georgia.
The Eagles racked up 13 hits, 12 of which being singles, to reach double figures for the second straight game and fifth time this season. Sophomore Aidan Conley was the standout on the evening as he collected three hits, scored a team-leading four runs and drove in three runs to lead the Blue & Gold. Conley also had Emory's lone non-single in the contest as he smacked his first home run of his career.
Conley was one of eight Eagles in the lineup to collect at least one hit in the game. Junior Zach Wasserlauf, senior Blake Dincman and sophomore Mitchell Smallwood added multi-hit performances and combined to drive in six runs. Wasserlauf drove in three to match Conley and Dincman recorded a pair of RBIs.
The scoring began in Emory's first trip to the plate as back-to-back two-out singles by Dincman and Wasserlauf put the Eagles ahead at 2-0. Dincman added another run-scoring single in the third as he scored Conley to make it 3-0.
In the fourth inning, Emory took advantage of two LaGrange errors to score four times to break open the contest and increase the margin to 7-0. Sophomore Jake Lawson and Conley registered RBIs in the fame while the other two runs came across when the Panthers' third basemen dropped what would be the third out of the inning, allowing Lawson and classmate Zach Hanson to score the Eagles' sixth and seventh runs of the game.
Wasserlauf and Smallwood added run-scoring singles in the top of the sixth to push Emory in front by 10-1 and one inning later, Conley launched a two-run shot to right to give the Eagles a 12-1 edge. LaGrange mustered two runs in its half of the seventh before going quietly in the eighth and ninth.
On the mound, the Eagles were showcased by sophomore JT Rattigan who worked four innings of one-run ball in his first start of the season as he drew the no decision. Rattigan allowed one run on three hits while striking out two and did not issue a walk. Senior Ryan Kelly picked up his first win of the season and he spun two scoreless frames in relief of Rattigan. He retired six of the eight batters he faced and worked around two walks.
The Eagles, now standing at 6-4 on the season, return to Atlanta this weekend for a three-game set with Middlebury College. The series gets underway on Saturday, March 1 with a doubleheader starting at 11:00 AM at Chappell Park.
