Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Weather pushes baseball, softball games to Sunday
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Inclement weather forced changes to Saturday's schedule, as Eastern New Mexico and Tarleton State played just one game of their Lone Star Conference baseball doubleheader.
Unfortunately for the Hounds (16-14, 2-8), who will now instead play a doubleheader today against TSU, Saturday's lone game still proved to be a loss. Tarleton State (21-13, 6-4) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, and held off a third inning charge by the Greyhounds to survive the 32-degree day with a 5-4 victory.
The Texans' Ruben Rodriguez had an RBI double to right field to bring home Blake Adams, putting TSU on the board first. Luke Morton then drove in Rodriguez on a single to right, before Jake Hasbrouck's home run to center extended the lead to 4-0.
The Texans would then increase the lead to 5-0 in the second, before Eastern took its turn by scoring four runs in the top of the third inning. Malcolm Smith scored on a passed ball, while Alex DeLaCruz's three-run blast to left field scored Endy Villalona and Eurick Perez to cut the deficit to 5-4.
From there, however, the Hounds could not get anything going, as they were held scoreless for the final six innings. ENMU tried one last ditch effort in the top of the ninth, as Zach Shank doubled with one out.
A Paul Tapia groundout to short made for a second Greyhound out, but did advance Shank to third, in the process. However, Villalona would go on to strikeout on a 2-2 pitch to hand the Hounds their second loss of the four-game series.
Starting pitcher Nathan Hickey (7-1) got the win for the Texans, striking out six Hounds in seven innings, while Eddie Avila finished the final two frames for his sixth save of the year. Meanwhile, Keenan Dodd allowed just six hits and struck out 10 in eight innings, but got the loss, dropping to 4-3 on the year. Game 1 of today's doubleheader starts at noon MDT.
As for Greyhound softball, weather also played a factor in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Eastern was set to take on LSC rival Cameron. The final game of the three-game series, which was set for Saturday afternoon, will now be played today at 1 p.m. MDT.
