Hounds pull out wild victory in LSC series finale

TYLER, Texas — It took some doing, to say the least, for Eastern New Mexico University’s baseball team to salvage the finale of a Lone Star Conference series against Texas-Tyler on Saturday.

The Greyhounds scored four runs on one play — involving three Tyler errors — in the top of the 10th and survived a wacky bottom half to edge the 17th-ranked Patriots 10-9.

UTT, which took Saturday’s opener 6-1, won two of three in the series.

With the bases loaded and no one out in the 10th, ENMU sophomore Cole Luedeking hit a RBI grounder and reached base with the ball was bobbled. Before the play was over, two more throwing errors allowed the other three runners to score for a 10-6 lead.

In the bottom half, facing reliever Damian Acosta (2-1), Tyler loaded the bases with no one out. After a strikeout, Acosta walked in two runs and allowed a third on a wild pitch, but he got designated hitter Zach Sanchez to line into a 4-6 double play to end it.

Texico redshirt freshman Dalton Thatcher went the first five innings for the Hounds (5-10, 4-10 LSC), allowing four hits and three runs (one earned) with three walks and a strikeout. Acosta came on in the seventh and held the Patriots (10-5, 10-5) in check until the wild finish.

The teams exchanged the lead four times before ENMU freshman center fielder Camden Matthews tied the score 6-6 in the eighth with a two-out, two-run single up the middle off Judson Schaper, the fifth of seven UTT pitchers.

Both teams collected 10 hits, but only one — a double by Luedeking leading off the fourth — went for extra bases. Third baseman Trevor Moses led the Hounds’ attack, going 3-for-4, while Matthews and shortstop Jude Perea each had a pair of hits.

In the more routine opener, Riley Jepson’s two-out homer in the third broke a scoreless tie, and catcher Lukas Polanco’s leadoff homer started a two-run sixth that gave the Patriots a 3-0 lead.

ENMU scored an unearned run without benefit of a hit in the eighth, but the Patriots came back with three in the bottom half capped by Jepson’s two-run double.

Hounds senior right-hander Josh Lewis (0-1) left after five innings trailing 1-0. He allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out five.

Starter Jacob Blaney (2-0) also went five for the Patriots, giving up two hits with a walk with four strikeouts. Moses had two of ENMU’s four hits in the contest.

ENMU plays another three-game LSC set this weekend at Arkansas-Fort Smith, beginning with a noon (MST) doubleheader on Friday.