Eastern New Mexico Baseball | 03.20.2016 | David Norton | Photo by Claude Vigil
PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico baseball team beat Texas A&M-Kingsville 12-11 in true comeback fashion Sunday, tying the game in the final inning and finally winning in the bottom of the tenth on a walk-off double by Keenan Dodd.
The Javelinas are now 16-7 on the season and 8-4 in the Lone Star Conference. The win moved ENMU to 8-17 and 2-10 in conference.
Greyhound head coach David Gomez said, "It was definitely a team effort, it's hard to pinpoint any one guy and everyone did their part out there. A bunch of guys got on base and then we sub in Jordan there who gets a huge hit to put us back in it, so it was a massive team effort and we are definitely pretty proud of it."
Staring at a four run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Greyhounds got on a roll, leading off with two hits and a walk. Scoring off another walk, a single by Pinch Hitter Wesley Jordan scored two more runs, with the tying run eventually coming across off a TAMUK wild pitch.
Heading into the final inning, Scott Klein struck out two batters and got the Greyhounds out of trouble, leaving two runners stranded on base. Leadoff hitter Marcus Martinez reached first after being hit by a pitch and was moved to second off a sacrifice bunt, Dodd stepped up and hit a double to center field to drive in the winning run and end the contest.
Klein was awarded the win and moved to 1-1 on the season. Anthony Inge also pitched two innings, allowing only two hits and striking out a game-high three batters. Michael Holiday, the Greyhound starter, pitched four innings, allowing six earned runs whole striking out two batters.
"Holliday gave us a decent start, kind of got us going a little bit even though he started to run out of gas there at the end. Basso came out of the pen and kept us close until Inge came in a pitched really well. Obviously then Klein stepped up there in the tenth and shut the door for us to get the win," said Gomez.
Giving the Hounds their first lead off the game in the third inning was Justin Paul, who hit a three run homer to go up on the Javelinas 5-3. Paul finished with a game high three hits and three RBIs.
Dylan Nault, Jacob Cluff, Michael McNicholl and Dodd all recorded two hits, with Cluff and Dodd also recording two RBIs. Jordan finished the game with one hit and two RBIs as well.
"We can't say enough about Padilla who had a great all-around weekend at the leadoff spot," said Gomez. "Paul had a bigtime homerun to give us the lead early. Can't say enough about Dodd also, coming in there at the end and giving us the game winner. He was struggling up until that point, got a little down on himself, and then comes in a gets a big hit into the gap for the win."
Eastern will now prepare to host their out-of-state Rivals, the West Texas A&M Buffaloes. The first game is scheduled for Thursday, March 24, at 6 p.m. (MT).
