After a tough eight-game home stretch, the Eastern New Mexico baseball team will look to get back on the winning track this weekend as the Hounds travel to Lawton, Okla. to take on Cameron in a four-game Lone Star Conference series.
The Hounds will open the slate on Thursday night with a 6 p.m. game and will return to the field on Friday for a doubleheader scheduled for a 4 p.m. start. The Greyhounds will wrap up the series on Saturday with a single game starting at noon.

LAST TIME OUT
The Greyhounds struggled to contain one of the best offensive teams in the nation last weekend as they were swept by No. 3 Angelo State at home. Eastern fell 15-2 and 11-1 in the Friday doubleheader before dropping a pair of 15-2 and 15-10 contests in the Sunday doubleheader.
The ENMU bats came alive in the second game on Sunday as the Hounds finished with a season-high 18 hits and four different players finished with three hits apiece (Nicholas Ankerman, Chris Padilla, Joel Paulino, Bryan Waltemath).

SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Cameron enters the weekend with a 15-22 record and is 6-6 in Lone Star Conference play. The Aggies were off last week after being swept at No. 11 Angelo State by scores of 18-1, 26-8, 6-1, and 11-4 in a four-game series the week prior.
The Aggies have struggled this season from the plate and the mound, as Cameron ranks last in the Lone Star Conference with a .246 team batting average and are second-to-last in team ERA at 7.38. Dillon Turney currently leads the Cameron bats with a .303 average while Pierce Khan has been the team’s top run producer with six homers and 36 RBIs on a .258 batting average. Izrael Trevino has also been one of the Aggies bigger bats this season, slashing .290 with six home runs, 32 RBIs and a team-best .436 on-base percentage. Leading the Aggies pitching staff this season is junior starter Devin Castro. The lefty has appeared in 11 games and made 10 starts, giving up a team-leading 4.78 ERA with 41 strikeouts and 27 walks in 49 innings of work. Senior right-hander Andrew Garza is the team’s most prolific strikeout pitcher, punching out 44 in 43.1 innings this season.

CAMERON COURSE CORRECTION
After a rocky start to Lone Star Conference play, a series at Cameron might be just what the doctor ordered for the Greyhounds. Despite the Hounds getting off to a 1-11 start in conference play, Eastern has matched up well with the Aggies this season after taking two out of three games in a non-conference series earlier this season at Greyhound Field. In that series, the Hounds won the first two games 11-8 and 6-5 before falling in the third game by a score of 13-12.
In that three-game series, Joel Paulino led the ENMU bats with a .556 average with a .692 on-base percentage with four runs scored. Joseph Zubia also had a strong series, going .500 from the plate with four RBIs and scored six runs while Nicholas Ankerman slashed .455 with a team-leading six RBIs. Earning LSC Pitcher of the Week accolades for his performance, Liam Sabiston picked up a win in relief after throwing four shutout innings, giving up just one hit and three walks with four strikeouts, limiting opponents to just a .077 batting average. Fernando Burgos also picked up a win in the series, throwing five innings and giving up four runs, two earned on three hits, four walks, and five strikeouts.

OFFENSIVE ANCHOR
Despite ENMU’s offensive struggles in the Angelo State series, Ankerman put together a strong series from the plate. The Lethbridge, Alberta native slashed 7-for-16 (.438) with four RBIs and had a .500 on-base percentage.
Ankerman has been a consistent presence in the Hounds lineup this season. After going 3-for-3 against Cameron on March 2, the senior infielder has been a consistent bat in the Hounds’ lineup as he is currently batting .355 and his average has not dipped below .333 since his big series against the Aggies back in March. In the last 25 games, Ankerman is second on the squad with a .388 average with a team-leading 19 RBIs, .495 on-base percentage, and a .563 slugging percentage.

PADILLA PRESCENCE
Working his way back from injury, senior utility player Chris Padilla has brought a much needed hot bat to the ENMU lineup. In the ASU series, Padilla made two starts in the Sunday doubleheader and batted 3-for-5. Padilla was exceptional in the second game as he reached base five times after going 3-for-3 with a pair of walks to go with two runs scored.
Padilla was a vital part of the Greyhounds offense last season when he was the team’s best power bat with a team-leading eight home runs and a .597 slugging percentage to go with his .331 batting average. In limited action this season, Padilla has went 8-for-18 (.444) from the plate and has not struck out in any of his plate appearances.