The Eastern New Mexico baseball team will head to Odessa, Texas this weekend to open Lone Star Conference play at UT-Permian Basin in a four game series from March 29-31.
The Hounds will open the series on Friday with a 1 p.m. game before returning to the field on Saturday for a doubleheader that starts at noon. Eastern will wrap up the series on Sunday with a noon first pitch.

LAST TIME OUT
The Greyhounds closed out non-conference play by taking three of four games at Dallas Christian last weekend.
The Hounds opened the series with a doubleheader on March 22, taking the opening game by a score of 4-3. Eastern held off a late rally by the Crusaders as the they scored a pair of unearned runs in the seventh off two Hounds errors, but ENMU closer Liam Sabiston was able to shut the door on the DCC comeback to hold on for the win.
The Greyhounds had to fight back from an early 3-1 deficit in the second game of the Friday doubleheader, but Eastern dominated the final five innings by scoring nine unanswered runs to pull away with a 10-4 victory. Six Greyhounds recorded multiple hits in the contest, including Malcolm Boehm’s 2-for-2 performance that included three RBIs.
In the opening game of the Saturday doubleheader, the Hounds won a high-scoring affair, pulling away from a 3-3 tie in the fourth inning by outscoring the Crusaders 8-1 to grab the 11-4 edge in the sixth inning. Dallas Christian closed the gap to three in the bottom of the sixth on a grand slam, but Sabiston kept the Crusaders off the board with a scoreless seventh in an 11-8 win. Malcolm Smith hit his first home run of the season as he went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, three runs and three stolen bases.
The Hounds struggled in the series finale as the Dallas Christian jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning. Eastern chipped away at the lead, eventually narrowing the gap to one at 8-7 in the sixth inning. However, Dallas Christian put the game away with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to hand the Hounds a 10-7 defeat.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS
UT-Permian Basin enters this weekend’s series with a 9-16 overall record and are 0-4 in Lone Star Conference play after being swept by Angelo State last week in the Falcons’ LSC opener.
The Falcons have been led by Gabriel Melendez from the plate, slashing .343 in 35 at-bats with 12 hits, including three homers, three doubles, and a triple. Melendez has also knocked in 13 runs, ranking second on the team with Skyler Palermo, who also has three homers and 13 RBIs as well as a team-leading 15 runs.
On the mound, Alex Rivera leads the team with eight starts this season, giving up a 6.96 ERA with 30 walks and 34 strikeouts in 32.1 innings of action. The Falcons top pitcher coming out of the pen this season has been Jake Rohde, who has recorded a 1.83 ERA and a 2-0 record with 19.2 innings pitched in nine appearances.

HISTORY WITH THE FALCONS
In the all-time series dating back to 2008, Eastern leads the Falcons with a 14-7 record. In last season’s series in Portales, the Greyhounds split the series after coming away with 11-5 and 15-8 wins in a doubleheader on May 5, 2018 after dropping the series opener 15-5 and the series finale 10-5. The Hounds ended up winning a non-conference series against the Falcons earlier in the season, taking three of four with 5-2, 9-2, and 15-4 wins in Odessa from March 16-18, 2018. The Greyhounds have fared well at Roden Field as Eastern has won eight of the last 10 games played at UTPB.

SATURDAY SLAMS
After hitting just two home runs heading into Saturday’s doubleheader with the Crusaders, the Greyhounds found their power bats by slamming four home runs in the two games. Eurick Perez and Smith each recorded their first home runs of the season in the 11-8 win in the first game while Boehm and Alex Kuhn each slapped their first home runs in the second game.

SABISTON SAVES THE SERIES
In a season where the Hounds have been rotating closers, the Hounds have found a solid closer in Liam Sabiston. The sophomore form Calgary, Alberta, Canada has already recorded three saves this season, two of which coming in the Dallas Christian series. He currently leads the team with a 0.87 ERA while holding hitters to a .184 batting average in 10.1 innings this season.

ROBBING THE CRUSADERS
In the four game series with Dallas Christian, the Hounds converted a blistering 34-of-35 stolen base attempts, including the second-most steals in a single game in program history with 13 in their 11-8 win on March 23. Eastern also stole 11 in its 10-4 win on Friday, matching the fourth-most in a single game. With 107 steals total this season, the Hounds are not only the top base stealing team in the Lone Star, but also currently the top base stealing team in all of NCAA Division II. Not only are the Hounds stealing a lot of bags, but they have also been very efficient by only being caught nine times for a 92.2 percent success rate on stolen base attempts.

TAPPING INTO TAPIA’S POTENTIAL
Senior second baseman Paul Tapia has been swinging a red hot bat for the Greyhounds as of late. In the Dallas Christian series, Tapia slashed a blistering .529 with nine hits, including a pair of three-hit games in the Saturday doubleheader. Tapia has raised his season batting average to .420, which is currently the third-highest average in the Lone Star.