Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — It was a Black Monday for sure.
The weather was fine, but the Eastern New Mexico University baseball team didn’t fare so well. The Greyhounds suffered a rocky first three innings Monday and continued reeling, losing to Lone Star Conference foe Texas A&M-Kingsville 20-3 at Greyhound Field.
A&M-Kingsville scored six in the top of the first inning, three in the second and three more in the third.
The Javelinas opened Monday’s game by drawing three consecutive walks and a wild pitch to load the bases, and Dallas DeStefano came through in that situation, ripping a single through the right side to score two runs.
It was the start of a big, big day for A&M-Kingsville.
The Javelinas already led 9-0 before ENMU plated its first run in the bottom of the second inning — when Endy Villalona scored on a throwing error.
It was 12-1 when Eastern scored its second run on Julian Heredia’s RBI double that knocked home Zach Shank in the bottom of the third.
Down 20-2 in the bottom of the seventh, the Greyhounds tallied their last run on Shank’s RBI single to left, scoring Tyler Barker.
Bottom line, it just wasn’t Eastern’s day.
Isaiah Lybarger (3-3) was the winning pitcher, striking out seven and walking just one in five innings of work. ENMU’s Cesar Capellan (3-4) had to shake off the loss and move on.
In all, Eastern used seven pitchers.
Shank was the lone Greyhound with multiple hits, going 2-for-4.
ENMU (17-19, 3-13 LSC) will try to bounce back on Friday. The Greyhounds visit Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas, for the start of a four-game series, with Friday’s game slated for a 5:30 p.m. start.
Sunday first game, ENMU 3-2 — The Greyhounds posted their entire offense with two-out hits in the first two innings, and it was enough for Enrique Perez..
The Greyhounds got on the board with two outs in the first when Julian Heredia tripled off Kyle Craft. Zach Shank made it 3-0 in the second with an RBI single to reward Malcom Smith for his leadoff single.
Perez allowed five hits over 4 2/3 innings, with five strikeouts and two walks, and was victimized by a pair of two-out errors in the fourth. Will Arnold grounded into a potential inning-ending grounder at short, but a fielding error at short was followed by a throwing error from left field that allowed Manny Loredo and Dylan Hutchison to score.
Shandrew picked up his fourth save of the season, allowing only one baserunner over the final 2 1/3 innings.
Sunday second game, TAMU-K 17-11 — Perhaps the most surprising thing about the nightcap shootout is that neither team scored over the final three innings.
The Javelinas did their biggest damage in the first inning, when they burned through starter Connor Reece and reliever Michael Holliday without recording an out. Reece faced just five batters, walking one and hitting the other.
Kingsville didn’t start hitting until Holliday came in and Loredo turned a full-count pitch into a two-run single. Holliday was pulled after walking the next two to make it 5-0. Andrew Montoya retired the next three hitters, but another run came home on a sacrifice fly.
Giancarlo Servin made it 10-0 in the second inning with a homer to left field off Montoya.
The Greyhounds made it respectable with a four-run third and six-run fourth. The third was highlighted by a Julian Heredia triple to score Alex DeLaCruz and Shank, while the fourth included two-run singles by Eurick Perez and Villalona.
Alex Paisar pitched three scoreless innings in relief, with no hits and two walks.
Tyler Crouch picked up the win in 1 2/3 innings of relief, after starter Preston Plovanich was credited with 10 earned runs on 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings.