Hounds capture wild series

PORTALES - At the end of a wild weekend, Eastern New Mexico University's baseball team came out of it with a Lone Star Conference series win.

The Greyhounds capped the four-game set, featuring 90 combined runs and two extra-inning tilts, by holding on late for an 11-9 victory over Texas-Permian Basin on Sunday at Greyhound Field.

ENMU (5-11, 4-10 LSC) took three games from the Falcons (4-17, 3-17), outscoring them 40-36 and outhitting them 49-41, with six triples and 18 extra-base hits. The Hounds also stranded 52 runners in the series, including at least 10 in each game.

In the finale, ENMU collected 16 hits, with seven for extra bases. Second baseman Dax Edmonds and first baseman Nick Schifftner each had three knocks for the Hounds and seven players had at least one run batted in - including two each for Edmonds, Schifftner, third baseman Sammy Williamson and catcher Jack Thompson.

Freshman left-hander Ruger Bravo (1-3), roughed up in a relief stint during Saturday's doubleheader opener, came back with six relatively effective innings on Sunday. He allowed five runs on nine hits but struck out eight over a 105-pitch outing.

ENMU led 4-0 after four innings, but the Falcons tied it in the fifth on a two-run double by third baseman Bernie Valdez and a two-out, two-run single by left fielder Garret Thornton. The Hounds countered with four in the sixth - three on consecutive bases-loaded walks - and made it 11-5 an inning later when Schifftner hit a run-scoring double and Williamson delivered a two-run single to center.

In the ninth, the Falcons made it close with four runs. Junior sidearmer William McBride relieved John Martinez after a pair of walks to start the inning, but with one out and the tying runs in scoring position he got a strikeout and a fly out to end the 3-hour, 45-minute clash.

This weekend, the Hounds travel to Texas-Tyler for a four-game LSC series.

ENMU 15-4, Permian Basin 12-6 (Saturday) - In a pair of games scheduled for seven innings, the Hounds had a chance to lock up a doubleheader sweep and clinch the series after scoring three times in the sixth for a 4-2 lead, with a two-out, two-run single by Edmonds putting them in front. UTPB, though, pulled even on a run-scoring, double-play grounder in the seventh before getting an RBI single from right fielder Pedro Astacio and a sacrifice fly from pinch-hitter Jay DeSoto in the extra frame.

Junior right-hander Trevor Berg (1-4), who came in having allowed 30 runs (25 earned) over 16 innings this season, used 124 pitches for a complete game after the Falcons had gone deep into their bullpen in the first two contests. He allowed 10 hits, walked four and struck out seven.

Sophomore right-hander Tommy Perez pitched into the seventh for the Hounds, while left-hander Cooper Hamilton (0-1) finished and took the loss. Perez allowed four hits and four runs (three earned) with five walks and five strikeouts.

ENMU outhit the Falcons 10-6, but stranded 11 runners.

In a wild first game, the Hounds carried a 5-2 lead into the fifth behind a five-run second capped by Hamilton's two-run double, but the Falcons erupted for seven tallies to take a 9-5 advantage. Thornton completed the rally with a bases-loaded triple.

The Hounds countered with a six-run fifth which included a two-run triple by Schifftner and an RBI triple by Thompson. UTPB's Marcus Johnson tied it with a two-run triple in the sixth before ENMU took control in the bottom half on Williamson's RBI single and a three-run, inside-the-park homer by sophomore Camden Matthews.

Thornton led the Falcons' 14-hit attack, going 3-for-5, while Matthews was also 3-for-5 for the Hounds and drove in four runs.

ENMU 10, Permian Basin 9 (Friday) - Catcher Andres Quintana's one-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 12th gave ENMU a victory in the series opener, which lasted four hours and 45 minutes.

It was the Hounds' longest game since a 9-8, 12-inning win over Tarleton State at Greyhounds Field in 2015, a matchup which took five hours and 40 minutes to complete. The teams combined to use 13 pitchers (eight by UTPB) and leave 30 men on base (19 by ENMU), with seven hit batsmen (five by UTPB), 23 walks and 24 strikeouts.

McBride (1-0) got the final out of the eighth after Stephen Rausa issued back-to-back, bases-loaded walks to give UTPB a 9-8 advantage. He allowed just one hit, walked none and struck out three over 4 1/3 frames.

Schifftner's three-run triple capped a five-run third which put the Hounds up 5-1, and they led 7-2 after four.

Falcons third baseman Jay DeSoto, who went 1-for-7 in the contest, started UTPB's comeback with a two-run homer, his third of the season, in the top of the fifth. Then Ferrari pulled the Falcons to 8-7 with his first home run, a two-run shot in the seventh.

ENMU tied it in the eighth when Hamilton scored on an error.

Matthews led the Hounds' 11-hit attack, going 4-for-6, while shortstop Michael Clapperton was 3-for-5 for the Falcons with a double, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI.