Hounds hope to roll out three wins

PORTALES — The 2018 season has seen its fair share of ups and downs for Eastern New Mexico baseball, but they recently remedied that by making school history, as the Greyhounds qualified for the Lone Star Conference Tournament for just the second time in program history, with the other time coming in 2009.

ENMU (23-23, 7-17 LSC) swept UT-Permian Basin in a doubleheader Saturday to clinch an LSC Tournament berth. The Hounds will open today's tournament at West Texas A&M's Wilder Park as the No. 5 seed, and will face No. 4 Angelo State (33-17, 14-10) at 6 p.m. MT.

"It was definitely one of our goals when I got here," Greyhounds coach David Gomez said. "We've been really close the past few seasons, but this time, we finally got in."

Gomez said that his players were tight last Friday night, heading into the UT-Permian Basin series, but once they got on a roll, thanks in part to Enrique Perez' pitching, they managed to win the games they needed to win.

The Rams are 6-2 against ENMU this year, with Angelo sweeping a series in Portales and the Greyhounds getting a split in the four-game series that counted in the LSC standings.

Thursday, however, is a one-game series. What used to be a four-team round-robin is now a single-game elimination format with six teams, as the league felt league losses in the tournament were negatively impacting regional rankings.

Three wins separate ENMU from a league crown. However, getting past that first one will be tough.

"Over the years, we've somehow found that Angelo is a very good matchup for us," Gomez explained. "Angelo State has had the most success of any team in the conference over the years, and we're trying to mold our program after them. I think the guys kind of elevate their games every time they play them. But with just one game, anything goes."

Gomez says that Perez, who will start against ASU, is an inspirational story. Perez was recruited to Eastern, but wound up as a preferred walk-on, and spent the first couple of years in Eastern's JV baseball program before emerging as the Hounds' No. 1 guy.

Thus far in 2018, the redshirt junior is 6-3 with a 5.68 ERA in 10 starts, striking out 47 and walking 25. As for who the Rams will trot out, Gomez thinks it's anyone's guess, as ASU has about two or three different pitchers that are ace-worthy. Gomez thinks ASU could send out all of its arms on Thursday, much like Eastern could do, since it's just a one-game elimination tournament.

"If you spread us out for four games, we're not as tough," Gomez said. "But if you get us in one game, we're a pretty tough team. We don't get to pitch Enrique and Keenan (Dodd) in most games."

And while Perez has certainly been one of the surprises this year, he's not alone.

"Levi Shandrew has six saves this year. We moved him from catcher last year, to closer this year. If not for him, we probably would not have won a league game all year," Gomez explained. "Chris Padilla has hit eight home runs and is in the top 10 in the conference. That was unexpected, because he's not a real big guy.

"The biggest surprise is Julian Heredia. He had been plagued by injuries the first couple years he was here, but this year, we plugged him in early and he just kept hitting."

Gomez went on to say that Heredia is having a "special season," because nobody at Eastern saw it coming. The transfer from New Mexico State is batting .336 with seven homers and 44 RBIs in 42 games.

Players like Perez and Heredia aren't alone in that "special season," however. Eastern getting to the LSC Tournament for just the second time has already made this season a memorable one, and the Greyhounds are hoping that it doesn't end too soon. According to Gomez, however, he doesn't want to set the bar too high, heading into today.

"For us to get here is a major accomplishment," Gomez said. "I don't want to over-do it and say that this tournament is not a success if we don't win it all, because of course every team in this tournament wants to win it.

"Getting in allows us to take on the next step of winning a postseason game, so we really need to focus on just winning that first one. But we're capable of winning all three of these games."