Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
SAN ANTONIO – Senior center fielder Ryan McGowen hit a long tie-breaking home run in the sixth inning and St. Mary’s held on for a 5-4 victory over Eastern New Mexico University in the opener of a Lone Star Conference baseball doubleheader on Friday at Nelson Wolff Stadium, home of the Class AA minor-league San Antonio Missions.
The Greyhounds chased Rattlers starter Clay Bradford in the third inning of Game 2, but as the designated hitter Bradford delivered four hits and four RBIs, including a three-run homer, to St. Mary’s to a 9-7 victory and a sweep of the twin bill.
The teams pushed up their four-game series a day because of anticipated weather issues in the area later in the weekend. Friday and Saturday’s twin bills included seven-inning first games and nine-inning nightcaps, instead of nine-inning single tilts Friday and Sunday and two sevens on Saturday.
Saturday’s games were slated for Incarnate Word’s Sullivan Field.
The sweep lifted St. Mary’s (21-23, 19-23) within a half-game of the Hounds (21-22, 19-22) for eighth place in the LSC heading into Saturday’s tilts. The top eight teams advance to the LSC postseason tournament in early May.
St. Mary’s was 2 ½ games ahead of ninth-place Texas A&M International after Friday’s, so it appears likely both the Rattlers and Hounds will qualify for the tourney. The eighth-place team will probably face Angelo State and the seventh-place finisher figures to see St. Edward’s in first-round, best-of-three series in early May.
With Friday’s seven-inning opener tied 4-4, McGowen launched his third homer of the season with one out in the sixth off ENMU starter Adrian Rubio (3-5). The Hounds, who never led in the contest, had tied it 4-4 with two runs in the fifth, the latter on an RBI single by sophomore designated hitter Mason Estrada.
Rubio went the six-inning distance, walking one and striking out six. The Hounds had nine hits off three Rattlers hurlers, led by sophomore shortstop Willie Ponce with a single and a double in four at-bats.
Senior shortstop Jake Mares and freshman left fielder Jacob King both went 3-for-4 at the top of the order for St. Mary’s, with King driving in three runs and Mares scoring three. Junior left-hander Andrew Girod escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh with a double play grounder to earn the first of his two saves on the day.
In Game 2, Bradford erased a 2-0 ENMU lead with a three-run homer, his 11th, in the bottom of the first. St. Mary’s added three more in the second, but the Hounds chased Bradford from the mound in the third when freshman third baseman Dylan Hummel hit an RBI double and freshman left fielder Jonatan Clough came home on a balk.
Third baseman Rudy Solis’ sacrifice fly made it 9-5 in the sixth. The Hounds added two runs in the seventh when Clough tripled home junior Cooper Hamilton and scored on Ponce’s groundout.
Kaleb Gauna (2-2), who worked 4 1/3 innings in relief, then set the side down in order in the eighth and Gauna worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for his LSC-leading seventh save of the season.
St. Mary’s outhit the Hounds 12-11. Clough, who sat out the opener after getting ejected from last Sunday’s 6-4 win over Oklahoma Christian, finished 4-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs while Hummel and Ponce each knocked in a pair.
Sophomore right-hander Noah De La Riva (2-4) lasted just two innings for the Hounds. Senior William McBride worked four frames while junior right-hander Anthony Gonzalez finished with two perfect innings, striking out two.
