ASU rallies to edge Hounds' baseball team

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico’s baseball team led briefly, but middle-inning runs for Angelo State proved costly and led to a 4-2 Greyhounds’ loss on Sunday at Greyhound Field.

There wasn’t a plethora of runs to come by for either team, especially in the early going, and after 3 1/2 scoreless innings, Eastern finally rang one up in the bottom of the fourth.

After Julian Heredia sliced a leadoff single, he was forced out on a fielder’s choice by Reynaldo Guillen, who moved to second on a Garlind Webster ground out. Chris Padilla then smacked a single to right, scoring Guillen and giving ENMU a 1-0 edge.

It was a short-lived lead for sure, as Angelo State promptly tied it in the top of the fifth. Andrew Morales led off with a single to center, soon grabbed second base on a wild pitch, and eventually took third on a sacrifice fly by Mitch Henshaw. Morales then came in to score the tying run on Alex Salcido’s single to center.

The big inning for Angelo State, however, was the next one. Jonathan Soberanes led off the top of the sixth with a walk, before stealing second base and advancing to third on a throwing error. Soberanes scored the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice by Michael Urquidi.

The Rams weren’t done, though. Nick Novak ripped a single through the right side, stole second, and took third on another throwing error. After Brad Mathiowetz drew a walk, Morales doubled to left-center, clearing both Novak and Mathiowetz off the bases and stretching Angelo State’s lead to 4-1.

Eastern managed to get one back in the bottom of the ninth when Zach Shank’s sac fly brought Malcolm Boehm home. But the Greyhounds could get no closer, and fell by two.

Morales paced Angelo State’s offense by being the game’s only player with multiple hits. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored for the Rams (13-5).

ENMU (7-5) collected only five hits total. Andrew Stubbs, Heredia, Webster, Padilla and Jared Gay accounted for them.

Angelo State’s Carson Childers (2-0) picked up the win, going six innings and allowing just two hits and one run while striking out nine. He did walk four, though.

Logan Voth worked 1/3 of an inning in relief, allowing one hit and a walk, and fanning two. Kellen Rholl tossed the last 2 1/3 innings, surrendering two hits, a run and a walk, and whiffing two.

Enrique Perez (1-1) absorbed the loss for Eastern, though his pitching line was solid — five innings, three hits, two runs, three strikeouts and one walk.

Andrew Montoya, Blake Frye and Levi Shandrew pitched the remaining four innings for ENMU. Montoya allowed two runs, but the other two allowed none.

The Greyhounds will travel to Dallas and play two on Friday, taking on Dallas Christian College at 11:30 a.m. and Calumet of St. Joseph (Ind.) at 2 p.m.