STEPHENVILLE – After three weekends on the road to start the season, Tarleton made its home debut in front of a strong crowd at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex but fell to No. 30 Emporia State 7-4 in the series opener.
 
Following the win, Tarleton head baseball coach announced the rest of the series would be played in a Saturday afternoon doubleheader due to a strong chance of showers on Sunday. With the game in format, first pitch Saturday will now be an hour sooner at 12 p.m.
 
Emporia State got out to a quick lead by putting up a four spot on Tarleton starter Jacob French in the opening inning, but the Texan righty from Kingwood settled down after that to give Tarleton five innings of work allowing just one more run and striking out five. The 4-0 Emporia lead could quickly wither away.
 
Tarleton faced a tall task – literally – as standing on the mound for Emporia State was 6-4 left-handed transfer from Texas A&M, Tyler Stubblefield, who had yet to surrender an earned run in over 10 innings of work this season.
 
Landed Thompson was unimpressed.
 
The fifth-year senior blasted off to deep left field to lead off the Tarleton second. He was immediately followed by Zach McCown, who teed off to right field for a solo bomb of his own to cut the deficit in half 4-2.
 
After a solo home run by the Hornets in the third pushed their lead back to three at 5-2, Jake Hasbrouck crushed a two-out offering from Stubbfield to deep left center to bring Tarleton within one at 5-4. It was Hasbrouck's team-leading third home run of the season, bringing home Dalton Richardson who extended the inning with two away on a single up the middle.
 
The momentum turned away from Tarleton in the seventh on a controversial decision.
 
On a routine fielder's choice to shortstop, Tarleton attempted to get the lead runner out at third base but the ball skipped away from Stacy Heinatz, but Heinatz quickly recovered and gunned down the Hornet base runner at the plate to keep the game at 5-4. The officials saw things differently, however, as the play was overturned by the field umpire, allowing the run to score with one out in the inning. Troyal Yosko got the final two outs of the game, but the damage was done at 6-4.
 
The Hornets would tack on one more in the ninth on an RBI double as Tarleton couldn't crack the Hornet bullpen.
 
Yosko and Austin Drolette came out of the bullpen to combine for the final four innings of relief, allowing no earned runs between them. Each allowed a single run, but each were unearned.
 
In addition to the three big blasts, Tarleton got hits from Richardson, Matt Olive, and Alec Humphreys.
 
Tarleton will return to action tomorrow at noon for two games against Emporia State.