Tuesday, March 31, 2009

LAS VEGAS, N.M.— Junior right fielder Ethan Wagner (San Antonio, Texas/Cisco JC/Churchull HS) batted three-for-four with three runs batted in, including a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning, but the Eastern New Mexico University baseball team (19-17) dropped a 13-6 decision at New Mexico Highlands (23-13), in non-conference action, Tuesday afternoon at Brandt Field. Highlands entered the week in the receiving votes section of the latest national poll.

Junior designated hitter Jereme Johnson (Roswell, N.M./New Mexico JC/Roswell HS) drew a walk to lead off the contest, stole second, moved to third on a ground ball and scored on a Chris Eaton (So., 2B Albuquerque, N.M./Cibola HS) sacrifice fly to stake the Hounds to a 1-0 lead. Johnson led off the third inning with a bunt single and moved into scoring position when NMHU shortstop, Kyle Gutchewski mishandled a ground ball off the bat of Sean Cruce (Jr., LF, Clovis, N.M./Clovis HS). After an Eaton sacrifice bunt, Wagner’s RBI ground out plated Johnson and Richard Urban’s (Sr., C, Clovis, N.M./Trinidad State JC/Clovis HS) scored Cruce to give ENMU a 3-0 lead.

An Oscar Sigala sacrifice fly in the third inning trimmed Eastern’s lead to 3-1, but the Cowboys did most of their damage in the fourth inning, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs on six hits, seizing a 7-3 lead. Highlands added three more runs in the sixth inning.

Eaton singled to lead off the Greyhound seventh inning and was followed by Wagner’s two-run blast to left centerfield, pulling ENMU back to within 10-5. Garrett Cook (Jr., 3B, Albuquerque, N.M./Lamar CC/Deming HS) singled with two outs, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a Ryan Pruitt (Jr., 1B, Joshua, Texas/Howard/Joshua HS) single to right field. New Mexico Highlands scored three runs in the bottom of the inning and their bullpen limited Eastern to one hit over the final two innings.

Evan Orsak (Sr., P, Andrews, Texas/Andrews HS) tossed a scoreless inning in the ninth for ENMU, limiting NMHU to one hit and striking out one batter. Johnson batted one-for-three, scored twice and drew a pair of walks. Kevin Thompson (So., SS, La Canada, Calif./La Canada HS) and Pruitt had two base hits apiece for the Greyhounds.

The Eastern New Mexico University baseball team will play a single game at Wayland Baptist on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. MST, making up a previously rained out game. On Friday, the Greyhounds will begin a four-game Lone Star Conference series at Southwestern Oklahoma State, in Weatherford, Okla.