The Eastern New Mexico baseball team closed out its four game series with a doubleheader split with Dallas Christian on Saturday, taking the opening game 11-8 before falling in game two by a score of 10-7.
In the first game, the Crusaders took advantage of a Greyhounds error in the first inning to scratch across the first run of the game.
The Hounds got the run back in the top of the second. After Malcolm Smith reached base on being hit by a pitch, he stole three consecutive bags, including a steal of home plate to tie the game at one.
The Greyhounds took their first lead in the top of the third when catcher Eurick Perez crushed a two-run dinger over the left field fence to make it a 3-1 Hounds advantage.
Dallas Christian tied the game back up in the bottom of the frame, scoring on a Hounds error and a wild pitch to make it a 3-3 game, but the Hounds reclaimed the advantage in the top of the fourth. After the Crusaders were able to get the first two outs of the inning, Nicholas Ankerman and Paul Tapia each reached on singles while Joel Paulino drove them both in on a two RBI double. The Hounds tallied one more in the inning when Paulino stole third and later scored on a wild pitch to stretch the Eastern edge to 6-3.
The Hounds continued to pour onto their advantage in the third inning. After Alex Kuhn and Josh Dolan both reached via walk, Smith smashed his first homer of the season, building the Greyhounds advantage up to 9-3.
The Crusaders got one back in the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run by Gabe Benza, but the Hounds added two more in the sixth on a bases loaded walk by Ankerman and a Tapia RBI single, making it an 11-4 game.
Dallas Christian cut into the ENMU lead with a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth, but Ethan Coombes entered in relief to get the final out and Liam Sabiston picked up the save in the seventh by retiring three of the four batters he faced to secure the win.
The Greyhounds scored their 11 runs on 11 hits and committed four errors while the Crusaders finished with eight runs on 11 hits and didn’t commit an error.
Tapia tallied three hits in the contest, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored while Smith was the Hounds top run producer after going 2-for-3 with a walk, three RBIs and three runs. Paulino also slashed 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs while Perez finished 1-for-4 from the plate with two RBIs off his homer in the third.
As a team, the Hounds finished with 13 steals, the second-most in program history, second only to their 17 recorded earlier this season against Dallas Christian. Paulino and Smith each tallied three stolen bases while Kuhn and Tapia each robbed a pair.
Elijah Cappello picked up his first win of the season in relief, throwing three innings and giving up just one earned run on four hits.
The Hounds found themselves down big early in the second game of the doubleheader as the Crusaders managed to push across seven runs in the first inning.
However, Eastern would not go down without a fight as the Greyhounds chipped away at the Crusaders lead on a Malcolm Boehm RBI double in the second, a Perez RBI double in the third, and a Kuhn solo home run to left in the fourth in-between a Benza RBI double to narrow the gap to 8-3.
Eastern closed the gap to one in the sixth on a Ryan Anderson RBI groundout followed by an Ankerman two RBI double and a Tapia RBI double to make it an 8-7 game. However, Dallas Christian pushed two across in the bottom of the sixth on a Hounds error to hold on for the 10-7 win.
The Crusaders scored their 10 runs on four hits and didn’t commit any errors while the Greyhounds scored their seven runs on 11 hits and committed three errors.
Tapia came away with yet another three-hit game, going 3-for-4 from the plate with an RBI, a run, and two stolen bases. Kuhn slashed 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs and two RBIs, Ankerman went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run, and Boehm finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs.
After taking three of four against Dallas Christian, Eastern wraps up non-conference play with a 12-12 record and will now look forward to the start of Lone Star Conference play.
The Hounds will begin conference play with a four game series at UT-Permian Basin this weekend as ENMU will open the series with a 1 p.m. game on Friday.