Senior pitcher Enrique Perez set a pair of Eastern New Mexico strikeout records, but the ENMU bats struggled to find a rhythm on Saturday as the Hounds dropped the first two games of their four-game series at Texas A&M-Kingsville by scores of 4-0 and 4-3.
The Greyhounds (15-31, 3-18 Lone Star Conference) battled with the Javelinas (27-19, 11-11 LSC) in the first game as senior starter Enrique Perez kept the Kingsville off the board through the first four innings.
The Javelinas were able to break through Perez’s strong pitching with a pair of runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth to pull away with the win.
The Hounds were only able to muster three hits and committed just one error while Texas A&M-Kingsville scored its four runs on seven hits and made one error.
In his final regular season start with the Greyhounds, Perez threw 5.2 innings and gave up just four runs, two earned on seven hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts. This season, Perez has struck out 67 batters, setting the eighth-most strikeouts in a single season in the program’s history while also pulling ahead of Jerry Macias for the sixth-most career strikeouts in ENMU history with 142 punchouts.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Hounds found themselves down early as the Javelinas pushed across a pair of first inning runs and added two more in the sixth to hold a 4-0 edge.
Eastern was able to mount a rally in the eighth as the Hounds were able to take advantage of a pair of Javelinas errors to score a run and Malcolm Boehm picked up an RBI the easy way with a bases loaded walk to drive in another to make it a 4-2 game.
Ryan Anderson was able to knock in one more on an infield single to the pitcher to close the gap to 4-3, but couldn’t quite push across the tying run as the Javelinas escaped with the win.
The Greyhounds were able to outhit the Javelinas in the second game, as Eastern scored its three runs on nine hits with an error while Kingsville scored its four runs on seven hits and committed two errors.
Nicholas Ankerman and Boehm led the ENMU bats, as Ankerman slashed 2-for-5 with a run and Boehm went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
In the loss, redshirt freshman starter Ethan Coombes went 5.1 innings and gave up just four runs, three earned on six hits, three walks, and struck out four. Senior reliever Elijah Cappello threw 2.2 strong innings of relief, giving up just one hit and one walk with four strikeouts.
The Greyhounds will wrap up the regular season tomorrow with another doubleheader against Texas A&M-Kingsville. The first game is slated for an 11 a.m. start.
