ENMU falls in opener

ODESSA, Texas — Yes, there will be other days, other Lone Star Conference games for Eastern New Mexico’s baseball team. Friday was certainly one the Greyhounds would like to forget, perhaps by the game film meeting head-on with a match.

By allowing UT-Permian Basin runs in every inning except the sixth — including four in the first, five in the second and eight in the third — Eastern was on the business end of a 22-5 oucher in Friday’s LSC opener for both teams.

Permian Basin clouted 15 hits and feasted on four Greyhound errors, resulting in the 17-run margin.

The Falcons went up early, scoring nine unanswered runs to open the game to take a 9-0 lead after two innings of play.

In the third inning, the Greyhound bats were able to find some momentum. After an Alex Kuhn leadoff single, the Hounds scored their first run after Nicholas Ankerman, Paul Tapia, and Joel Paulino drew three consecutive walks to plate Kuhn and make it a 9-1 game. The Greyhounds added another run two batters later on a Bryan Waltemath sacrifice fly to score Ankerman, narrowing the gap further.

After Ryan Anderson was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, Malcolm Smith drove in two more on a single to center, slicing the deficit to 9-4.

The Falcons, however, responded by putting up an eight-spot in the bottom of the frame to extend their lead to 17-4.

Waltemath tallied his second RBI of the game in the fifth on another sac fly scoring Paulino, but the Greyhounds couldn’t muster enough offense to put together a rally and climb from the deep pit where they had crash-landed.

Permian Basin committed no errors. Aside from its four miscues, Eastern had seven hits, recorded by seven different Hounds.

Smith and Waltemath finished with two RBIs apiece. Paulino scored twice for his 15th and 16th runs of the season.

The Greyhounds had a doubleheader scheduled against Permian-Basin Saturday afternoon, followed by the series finale Sunday at noon.