Chaps keep Hounds from clinching tourney berth

PORTALES – With two of the top offensive teams in the Lone Star Conference matched up and the wind blowing out to right-center for the most part, it would have been surprising to see a pitchers duel in Friday's series opener between Eastern New Mexico University and Lubbock Christian at Greyhound Field.

Throw in a a noticeably tighter-than-usual strike zone, and it wasn't surprising to see a football score at the end of the day.

LCU jumped in front 6-0 early, then held on at the end for a 17-13 victory over the Greyhounds, keeping ENMU from clinching a spot in the upcoming LSC postseason tournament.

"It was a big hitters day, for sure," said LCU coach Nathan Blackwood, in his 20th season with the Chaparrals. "Obviously, Eastern can really hit."

ENMU and LCU were slated for two seven-inning games on Saturday before finishing it with a 1 p.m. nine-inning contest today.

The teams combined for 36 hits, including three home runs apiece. The Chaps (29-18, 27-18 LSC), trying to hold off West Texas A&M for the fourth spot in the tourney and secure a three-game, first-round series at home against WT this weekend, rode a 12-for-17 showing by the top three hitters in their lineup, with two homers and eight RBIs from sophomore third baseman Brevin McCool and a home run and five RBIs by senior center fielder Eduardo Acosta.

By contrast, most of ENMU's damage came from the middle and bottom of the lineup, where the five players batting fourth through eighth all had multi-hit games. Sophomore designated hitter Mason Estrada of Carlsbad put together a 5-for-5 outing, scoring four times before being lifted for a pinch-runner after his final knock.

"Mason has been swinging a hot stick for us," ENMU coach Riley Price said. "He's settled into the DH role pretty well."

The tight zone made it hard on pitchers for both teams.

"I thought they handled it better than we did," Price said. "We have to be mentally tougher."

Acosta, who raised his league-leading batting average to .441 by going 4-for-6, made it 3-0 with a two-run homer in the first. McCool, batting .373, added a three-run shot in the second and a solo blast in the fourth and finished his monster day 5-for-5 with a walk while also scoring six times.

The Chaps appeared to be in command after notching four runs in the seventh for a 13-6 lead, but the Hounds came back with six in the bottom half on seven hits, including a three-run homer by senior center fielder Camden Matthews. Still, they left the bases loaded, although freshman third baseman Dylan Hummel narrowly missed what could have been a bases-clearing double down the left field line before striking out to end the frame.

Second baseman Caden Hensley, McCool and Acosta then hit run-scoring singles in the eighth, and junior right-hander Colton Brown was able to make it stand up with 2 1/3 innings in relief for his first save.

Despite Matthews' home run, his second of the season, the top three in the Hounds' batting order finished a combined 3-for-17. Hummel hit a one-out solo homer in the second, his second of the season, while sophomore shortstop Willie Ponce added a two-run shot, his third of the campaign, in the bottom of the sixth.

"We pitched their top (of the lineup) better than we did the bottom," Lockwood said. "We were close to going to our closer (freshman right-hander Tyler Manyo), but when we added a run in the ninth we decided to keep Colton out there and he got it done."

ENMU remained seventh in the standings when St. Mary's (22-25, 20-25) lost at Cameron 8-5 on Friday. The Hounds held a 2 ½-game margin over Texas-Permian Basin and Texas A&M International (both 18-27) heading into play on Saturday and needed one win in the final three games against LCU or one loss by both the Falcons and Dustdevils to lock up their first LSC tourney berth since 2018.