ODESSA, Texas – Junior starter Fernando Burgos shutdown a red hot UT-Permian Basin offense, throwing a complete game shutout to lead the Eastern New Mexico baseball team to an 8-0 win on Sunday afternoon.
After falling in the first three games of the series, the Hounds (13-15, 1-3 LSC) avoided the sweep with Burgos holding the Falcons to just three hits in nine innings while the Eastern bats connected on 12 hits in the contest.
The Hounds gained the momentum early in the first inning after Nicholas Ankerman and Paul Tapia each reached on a pair of fielding errors to lead off the inning and advanced to second and third on Joel Paulino's sac bunt.
Two batters later, Ankerman scored on a wild pitch before catcher Eurick Perez drove in Tapia on a single to center to make it a 2-0 Hounds advantage. Perez came around to score from first on an RBI double by Malcolm Boehm to right center to extend the lead to 3-0.
The Greyhounds added to their lead in the top of the third when Bryan Waltemath launched his first home run of the season over the left field fence for two more runs to make it a 5-0 game.
Eastern generated two more runs in the fifth inning after Waltemath led off the inning with an infield single and Perez drew a walk. Boehm set them up in scoring position with a sac bunt and on the ensuing at-bat, Ryan Anderson drove both in with a two RBI single to center to stretch the Eastern edge to seven.
The Hounds added one more for good measure in the eighth inning with a Joel Paulino RBI single, plating Tapia after reaching on a double to make it an 8-0 ballgame.
The Falcons threatened to snap Burgos' shutout in the bottom of the eighth when UTPB's leadoff hitter Pemron Burrows started the inning with a triple to right, but Burgos shut down the middle of the order by inducing a shallow flyout, a popup, and a flyout following a walk to keep UT-Permian Basin off the board.
In the bottom of the ninth with a runner on and one out, Burgos induced the game-ending double play on a lineout to Ankerman to seal the victory.
Burgos gave up just three hits and six walks while striking out six, improving his record to 3-3 on the season. It was the first complete game shutout in Burgos' career and the first complete game shutout by a Hounds pitcher this season. The last came on Feb. 11, 2018 as Keenan Dodd threw seven scoreless innings in a 12-0 win over Tuskegee. It was also the first complete game shutout of nine or more innings for the Greyhounds since Eastern's 1-0 win over Cameron on Mar. 22, 2014 when Matthew Artalejo threw 11 scoreless innings.
Waltemath and Tapia recorded half of the Hounds hits in the victory, as Waltemath slashed 3-for-5 with a homer, two RBIs and two runs while Tapia went 3-for-5 with a team-leading three runs. Anderson also knocked in a pair, finishing 1-for-4 from the plate.
The Hounds will return home next week for their conference home opener as they will face a tough test in No. 15 West Texas A&M. Eastern will open the series on Friday night with a 7 p.m. start before facing the Buffs in a Saturday doubleheader at 1 p.m. The Greyhounds will close out the series on Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch.
