Saturday, March 28, 2015
PORTALES, N.M. — James Gray (Sr., St. Petersburg, Fla. / East Carolina University) came within one strikeout of throwing the most strikeouts in the history of Eastern New Mexico University baseball Saturday, throwing 13 strikeouts in a complete game against nationally ranked Angelo State University for the 3-1 win.
Gray's 13 strikeouts is one strikeout short of the all-time record of 14, set by Mark Jackson vs. Wayland Baptist March 3, 1993, in a 12 inning game that ended with an ENMU win 7-6. The senior transfer struck out at least two batters in every inning except the second and fourth innings, where he only struck out one batter apiece.
"He was phenomenal. Out of 21 possible outs he struck out 13," said Greyhound head coach
David Gomez. "We believed in him and he showed up today, it was great."
Gray moved to 1-3 on the season with the win and now has a 3.99 ERA overall. His 43 strikeouts is the most on the team. On the day he only gave up six hits and one earned run with no walks.
While the Greyhounds (8-17, 4-11 LSC) won the second game of the doubleheader, the first game saw ENMU on the other end of the scoring column, losing 4-2 to the Rams (20-9, 10-8 LSC) after taking an early two run lead.
GAME ONE After an opening game single by
Dylan Nault (R-Jr., Anaheim, Calif. / Cypress College) and a batter was hit by a pitch, a wild pitch from the Rams pitcher advanced both runners putting men on second and third. A
Blake Cooper (R-Sr., Long Beach, Calif. / Long Beach Wilson High School / Golden West College) drove in two runs and gave ENMU the first inning 2-0 lead.
Angelo State would slowly chip away at the lead against Greyhound Ace
Cody Pope (Sr., Kingman, Ariz. / Williston State College), scoring one run in the third inning and another in the sixth. Pope gave up 11 hits on the day and threw only one strikeout in the affair.
Disaster struck for the Greyhounds in the top of the seventh inning when the Rams managed to score two runs off two hits to take what would be the final score of a 4-2 lead. ENMU recorded three hits and two RBIs in the game.
GAME TWO The Greyhounds more than doubled their offense in the second contest of the day, recording seven hits and three RBIs. Cooper went 2-for-3 from the plate in the second game and scored another RBI, pushing his series total to a team-leading four RBIs.
"He's (Cooper) doing great. He is finding ways to hit the ball in play with runners in scoring position and he has been a go to guy over the past two years. It's what he is supposed to do and he's been doing great at it," said Gomez.
With Gray's dominant performance on the mound ENMU didn't have to generate much offense but still saw several players get good at bats throughout the game.
Daniel Ward (So., Cleveland, Ohio / Clovis Community College) made his return to the diamond during the contest, going 1-for-2 from the plate and driving in the first run, after having missed several weeks due to injury.
ENMU will close out their series with the Rams Sunday with a scheduled start time of 12:00 p.m. (MST). After finishing the series the Greyhounds will travel to Lubbock, Texas, for a contest against Lubbock Christian University.
