The Eastern New Mexico baseball team challenged No. 17 West Texas A&M in the series finale with a pair of ninth inning runs to make it interesting, but ultimately fell 6-4 on Sunday afternoon at Greyhound Field.
The Buffs (28-8, 7-5 Lone Star Conference) pushed across the first run of the game on a Hounds (13-19, 1-7 LSC) error in the top of the first to hold the 1-0 advantage.
West Texas A&M once again threatened in the second inning by getting a runner to third with just one out, but ENMU starting pitcher Fernando Burgos was able to pitch out of the jam by inducing a groundout and a flyout in-between a hit-by-pitch, keeping the Buffs from adding to the lead.
WTAMU was able to get their leadoff hitter to third with one out in the third inning once again, but Burgos once again kept West Texas A&M off the board by forcing back-to-back groundouts to keep the deficit to 1-0.
In the fourth inning, the Buffs put together a major threat when the first three batters reached to load the bases. Burgos was able to get out of the jam by making some crucial pitches to the next two batters. Burgos induced WTAMU’s Keone Givens to ground into a fielder’s choice forceout at the plate for the first out of the inning and followed it with getting Jaxxon Fagg to a comebacker to the mound to start a 1-2-3 double play allowing the Hounds to escape from the inning unscathed.
The big defensive plays gave some momentum to the ENMU bats in the bottom of the frame, as starting catcher Eurick Perez hit a double to left center to leadoff the inning and came around to score on a Joel Paulino infield single that bounced off the glove of the diving WTAMU first baseman, tying the score at 1-1.
The Buffs were able to reclaim the lead in the top of the seventh with an RBI single, but the Hounds reciprocated in their half of the inning as a Paul Tapia double to left center field gap plated Ryan Anderson to tie the game at 2-2.
West Texas A&M was able to take the lead back in the seventh as the Buffs took advantage of a pair of ENMU errors to score two runs to make it a 4-2 game.
WTAMU added some insurance in the ninth inning with two more runs to extend its edge to 6-2, but Hounds reliever Braden Delamare was able to induce a double play to keep the Greyhounds in the ballgame.
Eastern started to mount a rally in the fourth inning when Tapia slapped an RBI single through the right side to score Ryan Anderson and pinch hitter Josh Dolan knocked Nicholas Ankerman in on an RBI sac fly to left field to cut the deficit to 6-4.
It appeared the Hounds had a chance to put the tying run in scoring position when Joseph Zubia slapped a single to left, but was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double to end the game.
West Texas A&M scored its six runs on nine hits and didn’t commit any errors while Eastern tallied its four runs on 11 hits and made five errors.
Eight different Greyhounds recorded hits in the contest and three finished with two hits, led by Tapia who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Malcolm Boehm slashed 2-for-3 while Ankerman batted 2-for-5 with a run. Anderson finished with a pair of runs after batting 1-for-3 on the day.
Coming off a complete game shutout last week at UT-Permian Basin, Burgos pitched a quality start in the no-decision, going 6.1 innings and giving up just two runs, one earned on seven hits, three walks, and two strikeouts. Liam Sabiston suffered the tough luck loss after giving up the go-ahead unearned run in the eighth inning to fall to 1-3 on the season.
The Greyhounds will try to get back on-track next weekend as they will host their second consecutive nationally ranked opponent in No. 11 Angelo State for a four game series. The opening game is slated for a 7 p.m. start on Friday, Apr. 12.