PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico will take a similar path as Greyhound baseball this weekend. Both squads will be in Odessa for a series with the University of Texas Permian Basin. Before softball hits the road, please take a look at the Four Bases:

First Base – Crushing It: Trailing 6-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, ENMU loaded the bases in game three of the series with Marissa Rodriguez at the plate. How did the bases get loaded with nobody out? It began with a Vivian Pichardo walk, Valeria Contreras single to right field, and a perfectly placed base hit for Chanler Groves between first base and the pitcher's circle. The freshman trailed 0-2 in the count, but that didn't matter as she sent the third pitch over the center field wall for a grand slam to get the game within 6-5. The game-changing play moved her RBI total from seven to 11 on the season. Rodriguez has hit a homerun in two-straight series now.
 
Second Base – Hits All Around: Twelve players recorded at least one hit over the three-game series with eight of them with multiple hits. Despite only starting two games, Chanler Groves made a big difference for ENMU during the doubleheader with WT on Wednesday. The junior had a base hit in game one of the day and followed that performance with three singles in game two. Her teammates Mikenzey Patterson, Ashley Nickerson, and Azalea Martinez finished the series with three hits to their names.

Third Base – Standings Matter: Going into the three-game series, ENMU and UTPB sit at twelfth and thirteenth in the conference standings. A sweep for the Falcons will keep the seedings the same for both teams as the Greyhounds hold a six-game advantage over UT Permian Basin. Eastern New Mexico has quite a bit to look up for as the team is just four games back of eighth place and is going into the final six series left in conference action.

Home – Advantage ENMU: On paper, nearly every statistical category is led by the Greyhounds. Coming into the weekend, Eastern is outhitting the Falcons 280-152 and holds a 3.87 ERA in the circle compared to a 9.63 ERA for UTPB. The University of Texas Permian Basin carries two LSC wins over Midwestern State and one against Angelo State. The Hounds are leading the all-time series, 24-14, but have lost the last three contests between the two programs. The last road win for ENMU against UTPB came five years ago.