Baseball | 3/24/2016 11:08:00 AM
Eastern New Mexico Baseball | 03.24.2016 | David Norton | Photo by Claude Vigil
PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico baseball team may face its toughest competition of the season Thursday, as they host out-of-state rival No. 18 West Texas A&M.
Heading into the contest at 9-17 and 2-10 in the Lone Star Conference, the Greyhounds are looking to get back on track, carrying their momentum from the 12-11 come-from-behind win over Texas A&M-Kingsville the previous weekend. The Buffaloes are heading into the series with a 19-7 overall record and 8-4 in the LSC.
"Our focus this week has been on getting back to the fundamentals on defense and executing on offense," said ENMU assistant coach Brett Merritt. "West Texas is a great ball club and we expect them to come out and give us four very tough games."
In their series history, ENMU leads the Buffs 52-50, with the Greyhounds taking the last meeting between the two teams 9-2 April 11, 2015. Prior to the win, West Texas had won the last four meetings.
This season, Daniel Ward leads the team from the plate, hitting .429 on the season and slugging at a .786 clip. His 20 RBIs is second to only Justin Paul, who leads the team with 21. Paul is hitting .374 from the plate and leads the team in hits with 34.
The Buffs have a slight advantage on the offensive side, with a team batting average .311 compared to the Hounds .301. Both teams are sitting around 20 homeruns on the season, with WT holding another slight edge in multi-base hits, with a slugging percentage of .469.
The Greyhounds will be looking for big performances from James Thomas and J'Daylin Jackson from the mound, two of their more consistent starters. Thomas leads the starters with a 5.28 ERA, throwing 15.1 innings and throwing eight strikeouts. Jackson has logged 24.1 innings this season, the most on the team, while fanning 16 batters.
The series kicks of tonight at 6 p.m., with another contest scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday. The four game series will conclude Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 12 p.m. All times are Mountain Time.
