Salina ? Emporia may have recorded the victory over the Lawrence Raiders in the AAA American Legion state tournament, but it was obvious to the Raiders’ fans that Lawrence had hit critical mass.

The blame can go to the poor base-running, the bad fielding or just the overall poor execution of play – a 30 mile-per-hour wind also played a bit of a factor – but it all resulted in an implosion in a 15-13 loss Monday at Dean Evans Stadium.

The setback in the first championship game of the double-elimination tournament means the two teams will meet again at 10 this morning. The winner takes state.

“We take care of the baseball and we cut down on mental lapses on the base paths and we come out victorious,” Raiders’ coach Troy Wingert said. “We put up 22 hits – that should win you a baseball game every day.”

By no means were the pitching performances of John Sneegas, Daniel Green and Daren Parker horrendous, since only 10 of Emporia’s runs were earned, because of five Lawrence errors.

But possibly the telling number of the game: Nine of Emporia’s 15 runs came with two outs.

“Some days : you just can’t get that third (out),” Wingert said. “Sometimes, you talk about the first out of every inning is the most crucial – sometimes it’s the third. Today, it was the third. We just couldn’t get the job done when we needed to.”

There was no doubt from the first inning Monday that Emporia – a team that collected 27 hits and advanced with a 22-4 victory earlier Monday against Great Bend – wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Like I told (my team), today was obviously Emporia’s day,” Wingert said. “They put up 47 hits on the scoreboard, and one thing they did today was, they made the routine plays.”

The one silver lining in an all-around disastrous day for Lawrence was the performance of Brian Heere, who was making his first appearance in the field in over two weeks.

Heere went 4-for-6 with two home runs, a double and five RBIs in his return from a trip to Australia.

“I was kind of joking around with him. I said ‘You should have gone to Australia when the season started,'” Wingert said. “He came back extremely aggressive and just tattooed a few balls.”

But even Heere was involved in a play that showed it wasn’t the Raiders’ day. Just before Heere’s first homer, Scott Heitshusen was picked off second base. Kyle Cross followed with a solo shot.

Another example could be seeing Patrick Johnson getting doubled up, drifting off second, when Emporia second baseman Jeremy Francis made an over-the-head, diving catch on a blooper off the bat of Nick Madl.

Either way, the Raiders looked lost in a haze the entire game. And with all the hits (22), home runs (4) and stolen bases (4), it’s hard to figure out just why Wingert’s team seemed to be out of place on the diamond.

The Raiders have one more chance to extend their season when they throw Heitshusen at Emporia one last time in the “if necessary game” at 10 a.m. today. The winner of the matchup will earn a trip to the Central Plains regional in Aberdeen, S.D., on Aug. 10-14.

“We’ve seen them now, three or four times, and we’ve got a good scouting report on them,” Wingert said. “Really, they’re a fun group to play because we know it’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out until the final out’s made in the ninth. Obviously we didn’t want to see ourselves playing in the ‘if game’ on Tuesday, but the marbles didn’t fall the Raiders’ way and we’ve just got to deal with it accordingly.”

Emporia 15, Lawrence 13

Emporia 230 230 230 – 15 20 3

Lawrence 302 302 102 – 13 22 5

W-Cole Armitage. L-Daren Parker.

2B-Patrick Johnson 2, Tyler Knight, Heere. HR-Brian Heere 2, Scott Heitshusen, Kyle Cross.