Friday, April 03, 2015

STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS — The Eastern New Mexico University baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader against Tarleton State University Friday, in what turned out to be two extremely close games, losing the first contest 3-2 and the second 4-3.

ENMU (9-21, 5-13 LSC) is currently fighting with Tarleton State (14-13, 8-9 LSC) for a spot in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, with the two teams sitting in sixth and fifth place, respectively, in the conference.  The Greyhounds were hoping to ride their momentum from last weekend's victory over Angelo State University, where ENMU took 3-out-of-4 games from the Rams.

The Greyhounds will continue their series with the Texans Saturday, playing a doubleheader starting at 12:00 p.m. (MST).  Following the road trip, ENMU will head home to prepare for a three game series against West Texas A&M University starting Friday, April 10.

GAME ONE

Tarleton State took an early 1-0 lead, but the Greyhounds would quickly answer with a run of their own, tying the game in the top of the fourth inning.  Both teams would go on to score in the sixth inning, making it 2-2 until the ninth.

Disaster struck for the Greyhounds bottom of the seventh, as a Texans batter was hit by a pitched to lead off the inning, followed by another batter reaching base on an error who was then followed by another batter reaching on a walk.  With the bases loaded and no outs, a wild pitch allowed the man at third to score and gave Tarleton the victory, 3-2.

The game saw very little offense out of either team, with ENMU recorded seven hits compared to the Texans four hits.  There were also no extra base hits in the game for either team.

Charles Sandberg Jr. (Jr., Bradenton, Fla. / State College of Fla. Manatee-Sarasota) and Steven Moore (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz. / Paradise Valley College) recorded an RBI a piece. 

GAME TWO

In another heartbreaking loss, the Greyhounds made a late run to cut the lead to one score, but couldn't manage to drive in another one, falling 4-3.  This is the eighth game of the season ENMU has lost by one run.

Trailing 3-0 heading into the top of the seventh inning, the Greyhounds put two runs up on the board but suffered another setback when Tarleton answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. 

Justin Paul (Jr., Papillion, Neb. / Highland Community College) was one of two Greyhounds with two hits in the contest and the only player on the day too drive in two runs.  Chris Sanders (Sr., Murrieta, Calif. / Palomar College) also recorded two hits and one RBI.

Mike Peters (Sr., Columbia, Miss. / Alcorn State University) had a good outing on the mound, pitching six innings allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out six batters.  Peters moved to 0-3 on the season.

Russell Edwards (Sr., Oceanside, Calif. / Palomar College) also pitched two innings as relief, throwing three strike outs and only giving up one hit and one earned run.