Eastern baseball team is playoff-bound

PORTALES — Entering the weekend, Eastern New Mexico and Texas Permian Basin each had a chance to knock the other team out of the Lone Star Conference baseball playoffs.

It turned out they helped each other get into the playoffs instead, with aid from elsewhere in the LSC.

Mike Fernandez went 3-for-4 with a solo homer Sunday, as the visiting Falcons took a 10-5 win over Eastern New Mexico in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The Greyhounds (23-23, 7-17 LSC) had already clinched the fifth seed by virtue of their Saturday sweep over the Falcons. They will play fourth-seeded Angelo State in a 6 p.m. Thursday matchup at tournament host and top seed West Texas A&M. Thursday’s winner will face WT in a 6 p.m. Friday matchup, with the winner moving on to Saturday’s 2 p.m. championship.

At No. 6, the Falcons will face third-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville in a 2 p.m Thursday matchup, with that winner facing second-seeded Tarleton State at 2 p.m. Friday.

Going into last Friday, ENMU, Permian Basin and Cameron all entered the weekend within two games of each other for the LSC’s last two playoff spots.

The Aggies suffered what ended up to be a fatal sweep against Texas A&M-Kingsville.

That, along with the Falcons’ split at ENMU, put both teams at 5-19 in LSC play. The Aggies and Falcons split their regular-season series, so the tie was settled by records against other LSC teams in order of finish.

Both teams finished 0-4 against WT and Tarleton State, and Permian Basin won the tiebreaker via its 1-3 record against Texas A&M-Kingsville — which posted the aforementioned sweep of Cameron.

Sunday’s game quickly turned the Falcons’ way, with a five-run second inning off Greyhound starter Bryce Welborn (0-1) to break a 1-1 tie. That was all the support Alex Rivera (3-6) would need, with four runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. Matt Williams held the Greyhounds to a run on three hits in his 1 2/3 innings of work, and Matt Symczak struck out the side in the ninth to close out the 3:50 contest.

Second baseman Alex DeLaCruz went 3-for-4 with a run scored for ENMU, while closer Levi Shandrew got a chance at designated hitter and went 3-for-5 with an RBI triple in the fourth and an RBI single in the seventh.