Narrow miss for Hounds

PORTALES — The weekend did not start off well for Eastern New Mexico’s baseball team, though there were some positives in the Greyhounds’ 2-1 loss to Lone Star Conference foe Tarleton State.

ENMU freshman pitcher Ethan Coombes put together his finest start of the season against Tarleton, but the Hounds struggled offensively in the low-scoring loss in the opener of their final home series this season.

Coombes threw seven strong innings, giving up just one unearned run on six hits and a walk while striking out a career-high 10 batters.

Through the first five innings, neither team had many scoring chances as the Greyhounds were the only team to have a runner reach second on walks by Chris Padilla and Malcolm Smith in between a Bryan Waltemath strikeout to start out the third inning.

The Texans’ first scoring opportunity came in the top of the sixth inning after Jordan Parker and Hunter Thomas reached on back-to-back singles after a Sam Scarborough strikeout. Coombes, however, was able to maneuver out of the threat by drawing a lineout to right and then getting a putout at first on a groundout to Tristan Bowden, keeping Tarleton State off the board.

Tarleton was able to take a 1-0 lead in the seventh, scoring that go-ahead run on a throwing error by Paul Tapia trying to turn a double play.

The Hounds put together a solid scoring chance of their own in the eighth as Eastern put runners on second and third with one out following a Nicholas Ankerman single to left and a Paul Tapia double down the left field line, but they couldn’t quite push the tying run across, as a pair of shallow flyouts to right ended the frame.

The Texans added what would be the game-deciding run in the ninth inning by taking advantage of another Greyhounds error to stretch its edge to 2-0.

The Hounds, though, didn’t go down without a fight, as catcher Eurick Perez led off the frame with a double that dropped just fair down the left field line. Perez crossed home two batters later on a Chris Padilla groundout to third, trimming the deficit to 2-1, but the Hounds could not generate any more offense in the game.

Tarleton State notched its two runs on seven hits with no errors. Eastern tallied its one run on five hits and committed two errors.

On top of Coombes’ phenomenal start, Cesar Capellan pitched a pair of strong innings in relief, giving up one unearned run on one hit and one walk with five strikeouts.

Five different Greyhounds tallied hits in the game.

Eastern concluded its Greyhound Field finale series with a doubleheader against Tarleton State on Saturday afternoon and a solo game Sunday afternoon. A Texan sweep would mathematically eliminate the Greyhounds from the six-team LSC tournament.

The Greyhounds wrap their regular-season slate next weekend with a four-game series at Texas A&M-Kingsville.