Five Eastern New Mexico baseball players earned All-Lone Star Conference honors on Tuesday as senior pitcher Enrique Perez and redshirt freshman Ethan Coombes were named to the LSC All-Academic Team while senior second baseman Nicholas Ankermann, senior shortstop Paul Tapia and junior third baseman Joel Paulino were selected to the All-LSC Honorable Mention list.
Perez was named to the All-Academic Team for the second time in his ENMU career after finishing with a 3.8 cumulative GPA in Business Administration. In his final season with the Greyhounds, Perez recorded a 5-5 record in 13 appearances, including 12 starts. Perez led the team with a 3.96 earned run average in 61.1 innings of work while turning in a team-best 67 strikeouts. Perez wrapped up the season as one of the most prolific pitchers in the history of the program, finishing with the sixth-most career strikeouts in ENMU history with 142 while also tying Kennan Dodd and Tim King for the sixth-most career wins with 13.
In his first season of action with the Greyhounds, Coombes went from closer early in the 2019 campaign to starter late in the season. The Roswell, N.M. product finished the year with a 7.23 ERA in 14 appearances, including five starts. Coombes came on as a strong starter late in the season, putting his best outing together in the final home series against Tarleton State. Against the Texans, Coombes went seven innings and gave up just one unearned run on six hits and struck out a career-best 10 batters. Coombes earned All-Academic accolades after accumulating a perfect 4.0 GPA while majoring in Business Administration.
Ankermann spearheaded a trio of Greyhounds to the All-LSC Honorable Mention list. The Lander, British Columbia native lead the Hounds in batting average (.353), runs (37), extra base hits (16), runs batted in (29), slugging percentage (.500), and on-base percentage (.479) while going a perfect 20-for-20 on stolen base attempts. Ankermann finished with a team-best 16 multi-hit games, including a trio of three-hit ballgames. Despite suffering a loss, Ankermann’s best game of the season came in a 13-12 loss to Cameron on Mar. 2 after going 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run. Ankermann also set an ENMU record for the most walks drawn in a single game, getting five free passes at Tarleton State on Mar. 10.
A senior infielder from Albuquerque, N.M., Tapia joined Ankermann on the All-Conference list after finishing second on the squad in batting average (.351) as well as the third-best slugging percentage (.425). Tapia tallied the third-most RBIs (23) and stolen bases (13-of-16) while finishing with the fourth-best on-base percentage (.419). Tapia put together his best series of the season on March 22-23 against Dallas Christian, as he slashed .529 after going 9-of-17 from the plate with three double, three runs, four RBIs and went 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts in the four-game series.
Rounding out the Hounds on the All-LSC Honorable Mention list is Paulino, who ended his season with a .308 batting average and the second-best on-base percentage on the team (.420). Paulino was particularly solid hitting at home, going .389 from the plate with a .519 slugging percentage and .476 on-base percentage in 18 games.
