PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico baseball team is set to open the much anticipated 2019 season at the Dallas Christian Tournament being held in Dallas, Texas on Friday and Saturday.
The Hounds will play four games over the course of the two-day tournament, as Eastern’s season-opener will be a doubleheader against Ecclesia College at 11 a.m. on Friday. ENMU will follow it up with an 11 a.m. game against Hannibal-LaGrange on Saturday before wrapping up the tourney at 2 p.m.against host Dallas Christian.
The Greyhounds enter the season picked to finish fifth in the highly-competitive Lone Star Conference as the Hounds bring back an explosive roster that finished with a 24-24 overall record last season. The Hounds went 7-17 in an LSC that is considered one of the strongest conferences in all of NCAA Division II after having three teams selected to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional and have two teams ranked in the NCBWA Top 10 Preseason Poll this season.
The Hounds under Head Coach David Gomezpicked up some enormous wins during the 2018 campaign, including a 3-2 victory on April 15, 2018 against South Central Regional Champion Texas A&M-Kingsville as well as a 7-4 win over Angelo State on May 10, 2018 in the First Round of the Lone Star Conference Championships.
The Greyhounds victory over the Rams marked the first victory for the ENMU program in the Lone Star Conference Championships since 1994.
The Hounds lineup will be headlined by senior outfielder Chris Padilla. The Albuquerque, N.M. native batted .331 for the Greyhounds last season, hitting a team-leading eight homers and drove in 25 in 40 games. Padilla’s best game of the season came on March 9, 2018 against Calumet St. Joseph, where he went 3-for-5 from the plate and drove in six runs off a pair of homers.
Senior infielder Paul Tapia will look to play a stronger role in the Greyhounds lineup during the 2019 season. In 26 appearances last season, Tapia made 17 starts and batted .298 with a strong .438 on-base percentage. Tapia scored 15 runs and recorded 14 runs batted-in.
Senior catcher Eurick Perez also makes his return a year removed from batting .286 and ripping three homers in 30 games last season. Junior outfielder Malcolm Smith will also provide some strong experience in the Hounds lineup after making appearances in 40 games with 34 starts, swinging for a .275 average in 109 at-bats. Smith ripped seven doubles and a pair of triples for the Hounds a year ago.
Senior pitcher Cesar Capellan will be one of the Hounds primary pitchers on the mound during the 2019 campaign. The Bonao, Dominican Republic native recorded a 3-4 record in nine starts last season, finishing with a 4.33 earned run average. Capellan’s season was highlighted by three complete games, opening the 2018 campaign with a pair of complete one-run games in a 6-1 win over Fairmont State and a 9-1 victory against Oklahoma Panhandle State. In the win over Fairmont State, Capellan broke the ENMU program record with 15 strikeouts, passing Austin Paisar’s record of 14 set the year prior.
Returning for his senior season is starting pitcher Enrique Perez. Last year, Perez did a bulk of the pitching load, throwing a team-high 57.2 innings in 14 appearances and 11 starts. Perez finished his 2018 campaign with a 6-3 record and a 5.31 ERA. The Albuquerque, N.M. native’s best game last season came in the Hounds’ 3-2 upset over regional champion Texas A&M-Kingsville. In that contest, Perez gave up just two unearned runs in 4.2 innings, giving up just five hits and two walks while striking out five in leading the Hounds to victory.
