Hounds finish season with split at ASU

Staff report

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Senior left-hander Clyde Kendrick struck out 10 over six innings and third baseman Daniel Ward’s two-run double keyed a four-run seventh as Eastern New Mexico University’s baseball team closed its season on Saturday with an 8-3 win over Angelo State for a split of their Lone Star Conference doubleheader.

The Rams took the opener 3-2, and won two of three in the series, although ENMU won the season series 4-3.

Kendrick (3-1) ended the season with two strong starts. He was lifted after throwing 97 pitches in the second game, and Mike Peters and Dylan Montano finished.

Ward, Blake Cooper and Justin Paul all went 3-for-5 for the Hounds (16-30, 11-21 LSC), who banged out 16 hits off seven ASU pitchers. ENMU broke through on a solo home run from Matthew Burks and an RBI double by Blake Cooper in the third, and went ahead 4-1 in the sixth on a squeeze bunt by Steven Moore and Mark Foley’s RBI single.

In the seven-inning opener, ASU’s Graylon Brown got Cooper on a fielder’s choice grounder with two out and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to earn his 10th save of the season.

Dylan Nault led off the game with a single and came around when ASU center fielder Nehwon Norkeh mishandled Cooper’s two-out double to right-center. The Rams (34-15, 21-14) went in fron in the third on Paxton DeLaGarza’s sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single by third baseman J.C. Snyder.

Snyder added an RBI double in the fifth, and that held up after the Hounds pulled to 3-2 in the sixth on a run-scoring double by Ward.

Blake Bass (9-2) went five innings for the win, striking out 12 and walking none. Senior right-hander James Gray (2-5) tossed a complete game in defeat, allowing eight hits and two earned runs with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Nault and center fielder Chris Sanders were both 2-for-3 for ENMU.