Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
SAN ANGELO, Texas – The good news for the Eastern New Mexico University baseball team is that the Greyhounds won’t see Lone Star Conference favorite and fifth-ranked Angelo State again this season, unless it’s in the LSC postseason tournament.
Still, after getting thumped in the first three games of the season-opening series, the Hounds put themselves in position to salvage Sunday’s finale before the Rams scored four times in the bottom of the seventh to complete the sweep with a 6-3 victory.
Angelo State leads ENMU all-time 68-18 and has now won 18 consecutive games in the series, dating to a 7-4 win for ENMU in the 2018 LSC tournament at Canyon, Texas. It’s the Rams’ second-longest winning streak against ENMU all-time, surpassed by a 20-game run from March 31, 2007 to April 6, 2013.
Senior right-hander Dalton Thatcher of Texico tossed five impressive innings on Sunday for the Hounds, working around four walks and allowing just one hit. He was in line for a win when freshman left fielder Jonatan Clough belted his third home run of the weekend, a two-run shot to left-center in the top of the sixth for a 3-1 lead.
The roof fell in, though, on reliever Damian Acosta, who gave up four walks and no hits in a four-run Rams seventh in which all the tallies were unearned. Sophomore third baseman Tayten Tredaway brought in the final run with a solo homer in the eighth.
Sophomore right-hander Scott Ellis (1-0) earned the win with 3 2/3 innings in relief of starter Mason Bryant, allowing three hits and striking out four.
Thatcher induced a run-scoring, double-play grounder to escape major damage in the first, then settled in over the next four cantos. The Hounds tied the game when junior first baseman Cooper Hamilton stole third and scored on a throwing error by Rams catcher Tripp Clark in the fourth, their only run of the series not coming on a home run.
ENMU outhit Angelo 7-4, with senior center fielder Camden Matthews going 2-for-4 with a double.
The Hounds open their home slate with a four-game LSC series this weekend against Texas A&M International, beginning with a 4 p.m. single game on Friday.
Angelo State 11, ENMU 1 (Friday) – ASU broke the series opener wide open with a five-run fifth for a 10-1 cushion. The game ended after 6 ½ innings on the 10-run rule.
Clark walloped a three-run double in the first for the Rams. After Clough homered in the top of the fourth, ASU scored twice in the bottom half on solo homers by senior left fielder Thomas Cain and junior shortstop Justin Harris off ENMU’s Noah De La Riva.
Junior right-hander Aaron Munson went six innings for the win, allowing four hits and striking out seven. Senior designated hitter Jordan Williams led a 12-hit attack, going 2-for-4 and driving in three runs with a two-run homer and a groundout.
ASU 5-17, ENMU 1-1 (Saturday) – In the first of two seven-inning clashes, the Hounds kept the game close until Cain delivered an RBI single and sophomore first baseman Tayten Tredaway had a two-run sacrifice fly in the fifth for a 5-0 margin.
Junior left-hander Kade Bragg (1-0) allowed one hit over six innings with 10 strikeouts. ENMU got on the board in the seventh when sophomore shortstop Willie Ponce delivered a leadoff home run against reliever Jackson Haga.
In Game 2, the Rams scored twice in the second, then had back-to-back five-run rounds from the third through the fifth. Angelo’s 16-hit attack was paced by junior shortstop Justin Harris, who went 4-fo-4 and drove in five runs with a two-run homer, a pair of run-scoring singles and an RBI double.
Clough provided ENMU’s only run off Braxton Pearson with a fifth-inning home run. Pearson walked none, struck out five and allowed three hits over five innings.
