Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
KINGSVILLE, Texas — Eastern New Mexico University needed a miracle if it was to grab the final playoff spot in the Lone Star Conference over the weekend.
But the only thing out of the ordinary was inclement weather, which transformed the four-game, three-day series into a pair of doubleheaders. The Greyhounds fell in both against host Texas A&M-Kingsville, 4-0 and 4-3 Saturday and 6-2 and 10-6 Sunday.
The Saturday doubleheader eliminated ENMU from contention for the LSC tournament, which will be hosted by West Texas A&M. Angelo State, which did not compete last weekend, is the No. 1 seed.
Senior Enrique Perez did provide a bright spot on the season, which saw ENMU (15-33 overall) go 12-12 out of conference and 3-21 inside it. Perez started the Saturday opener, striking out three batters in his 5 2/3 innings of work. That made it 67 for the season, eighth in school history, and his career mark of 142 punchouts is sixth in Greyhound history.
However, Perez was the hard-luck loser as Preston Plovanich (7-5) pitched a three-hit shutout with six strikeouts and just 24 batters faced.
Despite a leadoff homer by Kingsville’s Seth Spinn, Saturday’s second game saw ENMU draw closer, with Malcom Boehm leading the Greyhounds’ nine-hit attack with a 2-for-3 day with an RBI.
Will Arnold led the Kingsville attack, going 2-for-4 with RBI singles in the first and sixth innings.
Sunday saw the Javelinas (29-19, 13-11) take control with big third innings — a three-spot in the opener and six in the nightcap.
Eastern got its only runs in the opener on a two-run double by Joel Paulino in the third.
The nightcap saw the Greyhounds mount a rally in the sixth with three runs, all coming on wild pitches, to tie it up. But the Javelinas answered back on a balk and a sacrifice fly to score two in the fifth, and Pablo Hernandez added some insurance with a two-run double in the sixth.
Nicholas Ankerman led the Greyhounds in the nightcap, going 2-for-4 with a walk and a run, while Ryan Anderson was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.