Tough start for ENMU softball

PORTALES - Eastern New Mexico University's softball team appears to be opening its season against much of the cream of the Lone Star Conference.

After getting blanked four times by top 10 teams Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas-Tyler the previous weekend, the Greyhounds opened their home slate against No. 24 Angelo State on Friday at Greyhound Softball Field.

ENMU (0-6, 0-6 LSC), which managed just five hits in the first four games, collected seven in both halves of the doubleheader against the Rambelles but still lost 14-5 and 17-4. Both games ended in five innings on the eight-run rule.

ASU (11-6, 3-3) had 13 hits and belted four home runs in the opener, including three-run shots by designated hitter Ashlynn Box and shortstop Mykayla Stroud. Meantime, ENMU got three hits and a pair of RBIs from center fielder Azalea Martinez, while left fielder Alanna Larkins delivered the team's first home run of the season, a three-run blast in the fourth inning.

After scoring in each inning of the lidlifter, Angelo did all its damage in three frames in the nightcap, tallying six times in the second, five in the fourth and six more in the fifth.

Center fielder Courtney Barnhill led a 12-hit Rambelles attack, going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBIs, while both Box and Paxton Schuerer had two-run doubles.

For the Hounds, Martinez led off a three-run fourth with a home run. Later in the frame, catcher Mikenzey Patterson tripled home a run and later scored on an error.

Due to expected high winds on Sunday, ENMU announced that today's scheduled LSC doubleheader against Lubbock Christian (11-8, 1-5) has been moved to 1 p.m. on Monday at Greyhound Softball Field.

Baseball - Coming into the weekend, ENMU's baseball team had been playing well with four wins in its previous six outings.

At least for one nightmarish inning on Friday, that all came unraveled.

Texas-Tyler scored seven runs - six coming with two outs - on just one hit and five Greyhounds errors in the bottom of the third, and the NCAA Division II 17th-ranked Patriots cruised to a 12-0 victory in the opener of a three-game Lone Star Conference series at Tyler, Texas.

The teams were slated to complete the weekend set with a twin bill on Saturday.

Leading 1-0, the Patriots' only hit of the third inning was an RBI single by junior Luis Polanco. The five errors made all but one of the runs in the frame unearned.

That said, ENMU pitchers also contributed to the damage, allowing two hit batsmen and throwing five wild pitches in the inning.

A three-run, sixth-inning homer by Patriots junior Tanner Roach, his first of the season, capped the scoring. When the Hounds (4-9, 3-9 LSC) failed to tally in the top of the seventh against reliever Kameron Wheeler, the game ended on the 10-run rule.

Tyler (9-4, 9-4) managed only six hits in the contest, but in addition to the errors, the Patriots took full advantage of five walks, three hit batsmen, seven wild pitches and a balk by four ENMU hurlers.

Roach had half of the team's hits, going 3-for-3 and scoring three times.

Right-hander Johnnie Krawietz (2-1) allowed three hits over six innings, walking one and striking out nine. Sophomore Cole Luedeking posted two of ENMU's four hits in the contest.