RICHARDSON, Texas – As the Eastern New Mexico baseball team heads into its season-opener on Friday, the Greyhounds were selected to finish fifth in the Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll released by the conference office on Thursday.
The voters for the poll consist of all seven of the LSC head coaches as well as select members of the media.
The Greyhounds were selected fifth a season removed from going 24-24 overall and 7-17 in Lone Star Conference play. Under Head Coach David Gomez, it was the second straight year and the third time in five seasons that the Greyhounds finished with a record of .500 or better. During the 2017 season, Eastern compiled a 32-18 overall record that marked the second-most successful season in program history with only the 1996 team producing a better record at 34-19.
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 pitcher Cesar Capellan will be one of the Hounds primary pitchers on the mound during the 2019 campaign. The Bonao, Dominican Republic native went 3-4 in nine starts last season, finishing with a 4.33 ERA. 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.
The Greyhounds are set to open the regular season on Friday as Eastern is preparing to take on Ecclesia College in a doubleheader slated for an 11 a.m. start at Dallas Christian College in Dallas, Texas.
