By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

After three innings Sunday afternoon, the Fort Hays State University baseball team built a 5-0 lead against Emporia State University. However, the Tigers lost the lead -- and eventually the game -- in two different ways.

Helped by several extra-base hits and two Fort Hays errors, the Hornets scored three in the fourth and four runs in the fifth, knocking Tiger senior left-hander Matt Augustine out of the game.

"We felt good with the lead and with Matt on the mound, but they are a good team," Fort Hays coach Rick Sabath said. "They obviously strung together some big innings and we couldn't get them stopped."

Fort Hays, down 8-7 entering the top of the seventh, permitted four more runs off three walks, a hit batter, a force out and an error. The Tigers eventually lost 13-7 to Emporia State at Larks Park.

"Really without much offensive outburst -- without really a ball out of the infield hardly -- they scored four runs," Sabath said. "We didn't catch a couple of the breaks and they are a good team. You tip your hat to them."

Fort Hays, ranked No. 24 in NCAA Division II, dropped to 9-3, 5-3 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. Emporia State, No. 9 in Division II, moved to 10-3, 7-1.

The Tigers went 1-3 versus ESU this weekend, the first time they had won a contest versus the Hornets, a national powerhouse, since 2007.

"We had a great opportunity to get two wins in this series, which I felt would have been a huge accomplishment for us as a young team and to let it slip away is disappointing and we are not happy losing three out of four at home," Sabath said.

Fort Hays, with two returning starters and new infielders at every position, finished the season-opening homestand and will take its first road trip of the season this weekend for a four-game series at Northwest Missouri State University.

"There is obviously going to be a learning curve with some of the guys, but us older guys are kind of stepping up and helping them along," junior catcher/designated hitter Ryan Majercik, a three-year starter, said. "This weekend showed, it is going to take us a little time to adjust to that good talent that Emporia has and some other teams in the conference are going to have. But it's a long season and we will be there by the end of it."

Augustine, a three-year starter, had enjoyed the best start of any FHSU starter, throwing four innings of one-run ball against Bethany College and then seven shutout innings versus Missouri Western State University. Against Emporia, Augustine permitted seven runs (five earned) in four innings and dropped to 1-1.

"I thought his stuff in the first three innings was really good and then they just started getting to him and he didn't have that finish pitch that he had against Missouri Western," Sabath said. "He wasn't able to put them away with his slider."

Emporia, helped by three doubles, tallied three in the fourth. In the fifth, Hornet senior leadoff hitter Marc Albers homered before three singles and two errors led to three more runs. In the seventh, Fort Hays sophomore reliever Connor Beer allowed a walk, double and hit a batter before senior Garrett Morgan relieved.

After a lineout, Morgan walked ESU senior Tyler Knight after several close pitches, one that prompted Sabath to come out of the dugout and argue. Another walk yielded a second run before a fielder's choice and an error continued the rally.

"We created a little bit too many opportunities in that inning," Sabath said. "The hit by pitch and a couple of the walks. We have to overcome whatever we are dealt, but the three free bases in that inning hurt us."

Offensively, Fort Hays yielded just two runs and four hits in the final six innings versus the Tiger bullpen. Hornet junior reliever Matt Robertson (2-1) earned the win with three solid innings.

"They made the plays during the game that we weren't able to make," Majercik said. "They made the pitches, they threw the ball better than we did at the end. I think that's what kind of what it came down to."