PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico baseball team will return home this weekend to host a four game non-conference series against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
The Hounds will open the series with a Friday afternoon game at 1 p.m. before playing a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday and will wrap up the series with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.
LAST TIME OUT
Eastern will be looking to bounce back from a rough non-conference series at Tarleton State last week, as the Hounds dropped three of four to the Texans.
The Hounds got off to a rough start in the series as they dropped the opening game by a score of 14-4 in eight innings. After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, Joseph Zubia was able to get the bats going, hitting ENMU’s first home run of the season in the second frame as the Hounds were able to keep the game to within two until the sixth inning. After Blake Frye was able to score on a wild pitch to make it 6-4 in the top of the sixth, the Texans closed out the game with eight unanswered runs over the final three innings to pull away with the win.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, ENMU struggled to get the bats going against TSU starting pitcher Brian Archibald as the Texans held the Hounds to just four hits in seven innings in a 5-0 shutout.
In the latter game, the Hounds were able to find some early momentum pushed across five runs in the top of the first, including a Luidinson Hidalgo two-run homer. The Texans scored two of the next three runs to cut the ENMU lead to 6-2 prior to Paul Tapia driving another run in on an RBI single in the fifth to make it 7-2. Tarleton State rallied back with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-4, but reliever Liam Sabiston came in and closed the door, throwing three shutout innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Momentum appeared to carry over in the Sunday game as Eastern jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the first, but TSU tallied three of their own in the bottom part of the frame to narrow the gap to 4-3. Eastern added one more in the second and two more in the third to extend the advantage to 7-3. The Texans got one back in the bottom of the third, but a Eurick Perez sacrifice fly in the fifth pushed the ENMU edge back to 8-4. However, the Texans ended the game and the series with five unanswered over the final four innings, including a three-run homer in the seventh, the game-tying run in the ninth, and a walk-off RBI single in the 10th to hand the Hounds a tough 9-8 loss.
SCOUTING THE JAVELINAS
Texas A&M-Kingsville enters the four game non-conference series with a 12-7 overall record. The Javelinas are coming off a non-conference series loss to Angelo State, dropping three of four against the Rams over the weekend before bouncing back with a 16-6 win at Houston-Victoria on Wednesday.
The Javelinas are led by one of the best hitters in the Lone Star in Manny Loredo, as the redshirt senior outfielder ranks second in the LSC with a .412 batting average and is tied for the team lead with six extra base hits, two home runs, and a .559 slugging percentage, while ranking second on the squad with 20 RBIs and third with 17 runs. Junior outfielder Seth Spinn also ranks as one of the top five hitters in the league with a .405 average with a team-leading 30 hits, 19 runs and six extra base hits. Third baseman Giancarlo Servin has been the Javelinas’ best run producer this season, driving in a team-leading 22 RBIs (2nd in LSC) and scored 19 runs.
On the mound, TAMUK is led by a pair of strong starters in Zach Boyett and Preston Plovanich. In four starters, Boyett possesses a 3.00 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP, giving up just six walks and striking out 16 in 21 innings. Plovanich has been the Javelinas best strikeout pitcher this season, fanning 36 batters (2nd in LSC) and walking just 12 while giving up a 3.34 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in five starts and 29.2 innings pitched this season. Eric Sandoz has been one of the top guys coming out of the pen for Kingsville, as the senior reliever is giving up just a 3.68 ERA on a 1.13 WHIP with just five walks and 18 strikeouts while tying a team-lead two saves in 14.2 innings of relief this season.
HISTORY WITH THE JAVELINAS
In 114 previous meetings, Kingsville owns an 83-31 record in the all-time series against the Greyhounds. The Hounds will look to turn the tide as the Javelinas have won 34 of the last 40 games in the series. Last season, the Javelinas took three of four against Eastern in the LSC series from April 14-16, 2018 at Greyhound Field. In the Hounds lone victory, starter Enrique Perez picked up the win on the mound after throwing 4.2 innings and giving up two unearned runs in the 3-2 win in the opening game of the Saturday doubleheader.
FREE PASS SPREE
Despite the Hounds suffering a 9-8 loss to the Texans on Sunday, senior shortstop Nicholas Ankerman accomplished a feat that had only ever been achieved at ENMU twice since the baseball program started in 1992. Ankerman drew five walks, tying Mark Beeman’s mark set on Apr. 8, 1994 against West Texas and was later tied by Reynaldo Guillen last season against Clark Atlanta on Feb. 10, 2018. Ankerman currently leads the team with .524 on-base percentage as well as a team-best 15 walks while also ranking second with a .364 batting average.
POWER SURGE
Despite the Hounds ranking fourth in the Lone Star at 6.3 runs per game, Eastern’s scoring has not been coming the way of the long ball as Greyhounds hadn’t hit a home run through the first 12 games of the season. The Greyhounds were finally able to break through the home run drought this past weekend with a pair of homers, one coming off the bat of Zubia in the opening game of the series while the other from Hidalgo in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday. Zubia is currently tied for the team lead with five extra base hits, matching Malcolm Boehm while three of Hidalgo’s seven base hits this season have been of the extra base hit variety.
PEN PRESCENCE
Since giving up the walk-off hit to Oklahoma Panhandle State in his first appearance of the season, sophomore reliever Liam Sabiston has been the Hounds best performer coming out of the pen. Sabiston was named the Lone Star Conference Pitcher of the Week last week after he picked up his first win of the season after throwing four shutout innings with a hit, three walks and four strikeouts in the Eastern’s come-from-behind 6-5 win over Cameron on Mar. 2. Sabiston picked up his first save of the season in ENMU’s 7-4 win over Tarleton State on Mar. 9, throwing three shutout innings and giving up just one hit and one walk to go with four strikeouts. Unfortunately, Sabiston’s streak of scoreless streak out of the pen ended on Sunday, recording his first loss of the season after giving up the walk-off hit in the bottom of the 10th, snapping the streak at 8.1 innings.
