PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico baseball is set to travel and face No. 17 UT Tyler for a four-game series. Before the matchup with the Patriots, please take a look at the Four Bases Preview:

First Base – Split The Series: Eastern New Mexico is coming off a series split with UT Permian Basin. The Greyhound won the opener, 13-5, behind a season-best hitting performance. Eastern earned 14 hits and capitalized well off of two Falcons errors. A crucial error with two outs in the second inning kept the second inning alive for ENMU and the Hounds responded with six runs in the sequence. Eastern played with the advantage the rest of the way and set the tone for the series opener. ENMU dropped the first game of the Saturday doubleheader, 12-4, with the pitching staff struggling to get UTPB batters out. The Hounds responded nicely in the nightcap with a 8-7 walkoff victory. Salomon Lluveres made his fifth start as a Hound and ended the contest as the hero. He hit an RBI-double in the bottom of the seventh to drive in the winning run. On Sunday, the Greyhounds got down early and could not make a full comeback effort as they fell 7-5.

Second Base – Examining The Patriots: UT Tyler has not lost a series this season, but they have split two consecutive series. Last week they play West Texas A&M in Canyon where they won game one of the matchup behind an impressive 17-3 blowout and the nightcap of the Saturday doubleheader. UTT has only lost one Friday game this season. The game one win featured five Patriots with multiple runs. UTT was patient at the plate as they secured 11 walks. In game two, WT snagged 10 hits and came out on top 4-3 as the Buffs ace pitcher stayed a perfect 5-0 with a complete game outing. The Patriots responded nicely with a defensive-first game in the second part of the doubleheader. UTT struck first with two runs in the second and the Buffs answered by tying the game in the fourth. It did not take long for UT Tyler to retake the lead as they saw one run cross home in the fifth. That is all the scoring needed for the second win of the weekend for UTT. The Patriots dropped the series finale to WT, 7-6, after the Buffs scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth off a two-out RBI-double.

Third Base – Among the LSC: Eastern is fifth in the conference with a 95.8% fielding percentage. ENMU is ninth in the LSC with 186 hits this season, including ranking in the top 100 nationally with 12 homeruns. Cole Curtis for the Greyhounds is one of two players in the Lone Star with three triples this year. Eiji Sawamura is ninth in the LSC with 30 hits. He is seventh in the conference with 10 steals.

Home – Making It Matter: Four regular starters for Eastern New Mexico are hitting above .300 at the plate. Eiji Sawamura (.366), Cole Curtis (.356), Gabriel Watson (.342), and Logan Martin (.314) are among those Greyhound hitters. Adrien Martin is leading the program with five doubles. Jake Willerup and Isaiah Figueroa join Curtis with four doubles apiece. One area that is beginning to click for a few Hounds is performance on the mound. Cole Lancaster is 3-3 on the season and has earned a win in two consecutive games. Against UTPB he went five innings allowing three runs on seven hits and three walks. He earned a season-best seven strikeouts against the Falcons. Demitrius DiMatteo has been a strikeout king in the last two series for Eastern. He has had 16 total strikeouts over his last three appearances. In four innings of work against UTPB, he set down five batters while giving up two runs on four hits and a walk. His season ERA sits at 3.66.