Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ODESSA, Texas – Freshman left fielder Jonatan Clough delivered a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh inning, and Eastern New Mexico University’s baseball team held on for a 4-3 victory over Texas-Permian Basin on Friday in the opener of a four-game Lone Star Conference series.
Sophomore right-hander Adrian Rubio (3-2) earned the win with seven solid innings, and junior righty Javier Luna got the final six outs to notch his second save of the campaign.
The teams were slated for a pair of seven-inning games on Saturday before finishing it off with a nine-inning single tilt this afternoon.
Friday’s game was moved up five hours from its original start time to 8 a.m. (MDT) to try and avoid high winds expected in the Odessa area.
“I’m really proud of Rubio for staying composed and handling adversity today, and Luna did a great job out of the (bullpen),” ENMU coach Riley Price said. “It’s a nice win, and (now) we need to get our bats going for (Saturday).”
With the score 2-2 in the top of the seventh, sophomore catcher Rutger Poiry and junior first baseman Nyles Duren singled with one out. Senior center fielder Camden Matthew then hit into a fielder’s choice before junior right fielder Cooper Hamilton was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Clough, who singled through the middle to score Poiry and Matthews.
Shortstop Mason Hamlin’s one-out homer to left-center in the bottom of the frame cut the margin in half and third baseman Michael Clapperton followed with a single, but Rubio finished off his outing with a fly out and a strikeout. Luna retired six of the seven hitters he faced, working around a one-out double by center fielder Cooper Ciesielski in the eighth.
ENMU (13-13, 11-13 LSC), which won its fourth game in a row, scored an unearned run in the fourth before Ciesielski’s RBI single promptly tied it. Hamilton led off the Hounds’ sixth with a triple and came home on sophomore shortstop Willie Ponce’s sacrifice fly, but an error allowed UTPB second baseman Carson Johnson to score the tying run in the bottom half.
Both teams had seven hits, with sophomore second baseman Demetrio Archuleta going 2-for-4 for the Hounds and Hamlin and Ciesielski each collecting a pair of knocks for the Falcons (10-19, 10-19).
