Saturday, March 13, 2010

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS - Ethan Wagner's (Sr., RF, San Antonio, Texas/Cisco JC/Churchull HS) four-for-five performance led a late surge by the Eastern New Mexico University baseball team (13-12; LSC 11-9) as the Greyhounds rallied from a 10-2 seventh-inning deficit to post a 14-10 win over Angelo State (16-13; LSC 10-10) in the opening game of a Lone Star Conference doubleheader, Saturday afternoon at Foster Field. The Rams bounced back to claim a 24-3 decision in the series finale.

The Greyhounds faced a seemingly insurmountable 10-2 deficit in the seventh inning of the opener, but Kevin Thompson's (Jr., SS, La Cañada, Calif./ La Cañada HS) leadoff single sparked an eight run rally that saw 14 ENMU players step to the plate to pound out five hits to knot the score at 10-all on Luis Quiñones' (Fr., CF, Las Cruces, N.M./Las Cruces HS) two-out, two-run single to centerfield. ASU reliever Bryce Bjorklund induced a ground ball to escape a bases loaded jam.

Anthony Smith (Jr., RHP, 29 Palms, Calif./Cal State-Stanislaus) retired three of Angelo State's four batters in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings and the Hounds continued their offensive momentum as the game went into extra innings. Jereme Johnson (Sr., LF, Roswell, N.M./NMJC/Goddard HS) and Wagner led off the Greyhound eighth with back-to-back doubles to give ENMU its first lead of the game and Chris Eaton's (Jr., 3B, Albuquerque, N.M./Cibola HS) RBI single to left with one out doubled the Hound's lead. After an intentional walk to Thompson, Smith dropped a sacrifice bunt, moving both Thompson and Eaton into scoring position. With a 1-0 count, Quiñones drove a Bjorklund offering over Ram centerfielder, Isaac Garcia for a two-out, two-run double, giving Eastern a 14-10 lead. After Smith retired Dylan Petrich and Zach Leonhardt to lead off the Ram eighth, Chris Adamson's double, followed by Travis Lites' infield single and stolen base, Angelo State had two runners in scoring position with one out to work with. After Smith struck out Matt Lenderman swinging, the Hounds celebrated their fourth last at-bat victory of the season, including their first on the road.

Quiñones batted three-for-three with four RBIs and three runs scored, while Thompson hit two-for-three with three runs scored, a RBI and two walks. The Hounds batted 11-for-19 (.579) with a home run, four doubles and five walks over the final three innings after hitting 6-for-18 (.333), with one double over the first six innings. Smith scattered three hits over two innings to improve to 2-1 on the season. The Rams used six pitchers in the seventh inning.

In the nightcap, the Rams held a 4-0 lead entering the bottom of the third, but sent 19 batters to the plate during the inning, scoring 15 runs on 11 hits, giving them a 19-0 lead. The Hounds rallied for three runs in the fourth in RBI singles from Mitch Wolfe (So., DH, Litchfield Park, Ariz./Agua Fria HS) and Quiñones, followed by a sacrifice fly from Garrett Cook (Sr., 2B, Deming, N.M./Lamar CC/Deming HS), but ASU closed out the game with five unanswered runs.

Wagner batted three-for-four to extend his hitting streak to nine games, while Eaton hit two-for-four with a double to extend his own hitting streak to a career-best 10 games.

The Eastern New Mexico University baseball team will return to Greyhound Field on Monday to open a two-game series against University of Texas of the Permian Basin, starting at 4 p.m. The teams will meet again at 1 p.m. MST on Tuesday.