ENMU gains split for first win of season

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Break up those Greyhounds!

In what has been a long and painful season, the Eastern New Mexico University softball team finally made a notch in the win column on Sunday — and moved out of the Lone Star Conference cellar to boot — with a 10-4 thumping of Midwestern State in the second game of a Lone Star Conference doubleheader.

MSU claimed the opener 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the seventh. In fact, the Hounds were painfully close to a winning weekend road trip — they dropped the second game of Saturday’s twin bill at Texas Woman’s 4-3 after losing 8-0 in Game 1.

After scoring 18 runs in their first 18 tilts in 2021, and being run-ruled in all but one of them, the Hounds (1-20, 1-19 LSC) — who eased ahead of Western New Mexico (1-23, 1-23) in the standings — plated 15 runs in the final three games of the trip. Prior to Saturday’s nightcap at TWU, they hadn’t allowed fewer than eight runs in any game this season.

ENMU, which last won when it swept rival West Texas A&M 4-3 and 5-4 in March 2020 at Greyhound Softball Field, just before the pandemic, led early in Game 2 on Sunday 3-0, then fell behind when the Mustangs (13-25, 6-18) scored four times in the bottom of the third.

But the Hounds took the lead right back on freshman Jokaira Paredes’ two-run single in the fourth. Third baseman Juliana Vidal’s two-run single keyed a three-run fifth, and designated hitter Tianna Boone capped it with a two-run homer, her first of the campaign, in the sixth.

Freshman Brook Leger (1-5) hurled four shutout innings in relief of starter Jordan Bowman for the win. She struck out seven, including two to end a bases-loaded, one-out threat by the Mustangs in the bottom of the sixth.

In the opener, Midwestern State carried a 2-0 lead into the seventh, but ENMU tied it on freshman Aylene Lucero’s two-out, two-run single to left. In the bottom half, the Mustangs’ Carson Solis led off with a walk and tallied the game-winner after three consecutive one-out singles, the last by junior Marley Eller.

ENMU loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the sixth, but Mustangs pitcher Kaitlyn Turner (5-12) escaped by getting two pop-ups around a strikeout.

On Saturday at Denton, Texas, something had to give in the opener, and TWU’s Kelsie Briggs (1-11) tossed a five-inning, two-hit shutout for her first win of the season. Then in Game 2, the Pioneers (6-21, 5-17) carried a 4-1 lead into the seventh before the Hounds scored twice, helped by three TWU miscues.

Briggs, who relieved starter Jalee McDonald (3-4) in the fifth, gave up a sacrifice fly to ENMU right fielder Bella Mendoza to make it 4-3, but stranded the tying run on base and nailed down her second save of the year when she got freshman Alanna Larkins on a grounder to third.

The Hounds return to Greyhound Softball Field this weekend for a 3 p.m. Friday twin bill against WNMU and an 11 a.m. double dip on Sunday against Texas-Permian Basin (5-29, 3-21).

ASU sweeps Hounds — ENMU’s baseball woes continued on Saturday when 13th-ranked Angelo State swept a doubleheader 5-1 and 19-7 at San Angelo, Texas, completing a three-game LSC series sweep. The Hounds have now dropped eight in a row and 18 of their last 20.

Junior right-hander Liam Sabiston worked five innings in relief of starter Dalton Thatcher (1-5) in the lidlifter, including the first four without allowing a hit. He gave up a walk, a hit batsman, designated hitter Riley Peterson’s RBI single and leadoff man Jackson Hardy’s sacrifice fly in the eighth as the Rams (24-5, 19-5 LSC) broke open a fairly tight contest.

Left-hander Benjamin Elder (6-1) went seven innings for Angelo, allowing just two hits with nine strikeouts.

Game 2 quickly got away from the Hounds as the Rams chased starter Josh Lewis (0-5) with a seven-run first and piled on in a game shortened to seven innings by the 10-run rule.

Nicholas Tamez hit his team-leading fourth homer of the season for the Hounds (6-26, 5-24), a three-run shot in the fifth.

ENMU returns to action with a three-game LSC weekend series at Texas A&M International, starting with an 11 a.m. (MDT) twin bill on Friday.

ENMU women win Western Texas rodeo — The ENMU women’s rodeo squad scored 335 points to claim team honors in the Western Texas College rodeo over the weekend at Snyder, Texas. The Hounds won the event for the fourth time, with other titles coming in 2010, 2014 and 2015.

Senior Madelyn Schauer split second in the first go of goat-tying with a time of 7.1 seconds, then split first in the short go at 7.4 seconds to split first in the average. Also, freshman Shacie Marr won both goes in barrel racing with respective times of 17.79 and 17.70 seconds to win in the average.

For the ENMU men, sophomore Trey Jackson was second in the first go of steer wrestling with a time of 4.0 seconds, fifth in the short go at 5.6 and fourth in the average to earn 100 points. He ranks first overall in the region in steer wrestling, ahead of Tarleton State’s Walt Arnold.

ENMU wraps up its spring schedule this weekend when it visits Stephenville, Texas, for a rodeo hosted by Tarleton State.