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Angelo tops ENMU in opener

ABILENE, Texas — Senior right-hander Kenny Elkind threw a complete game and Angelo State broke away late for a 10-4 victory over Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday in the opening round of the Lone Star Conference baseball tournament.

The Greyhounds (28-27), seeded fifth in the six-team tournament, take on top-seeded Cameron in a losers bracket game at 10 a.m. (MDT) today. The Aggies were upended Saturday by sixth-seeded Tarleton State 6-3.

Third baseman Austin Lasprilla homered and drove in three runs as the 16th-ranked Rams (41-16) scored three in the seventh and two in the eighth to break open a 5-4 game.

Elkind threw 116 pitches, allowing eight hits and two earned runs. Senior left-hander Seth Clabaugh (0-5) was chased in Angelo’s three-run fifth and took the loss.

Jason Morriss hit a sacrifice fly in the first for the Rams, but ENMU tied it in the second when Freddy Carmona reached on an error, took second on Clayton Young’s sacrifice and scored on a triple by Ethan Wagner.

Lasprilla hit a 3-0 pitch over the left-center field wall leading off the bottom half to put Angelo back in front, but the Hounds came back in the third when Kevin Thompson blooped a leadoff double just inside the right field line, took third on a fly out and scored when left fielder Travis Lites made a sliding catch of Garrett Cook’s line-drive sacrifice fly.

Clabaugh retired eight straight, getting Lites to pop out to short to start the fifth, but he never got another man out.

Two walks and Tony Kostelnik’s single to right made it 3-2. Kevin Towne then delivered an RBI single and Chris Adamson walked, loading the bases and ending Clabaugh’s day on the mound.

Evan Orsak gave up an RBI single to Morris, but then got a strikeout and a flyout to leave the bases loaded. Then Clabaugh, also serving as the designated hitter, launched his sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot to right-center, to make it 5-4 in the sixth.

Lasprilla’s two-run double keyed a three-run seventh off Orsak, and Adamson belted his ninth homer of the season, a two-run shot with two out in the eighth, off Jerry Manning.

Catcher Trey Carter, batting leadoff, went 3-for-4 for the Rams, who finished with 12 hits. Wagner went 2-for-3 and was ENMU’s only player with more than one hit.