PORTALES, N.M. – St. Edward's baseball surrendered five runs in the third inning to open its four-game series against Eastern New Mexico with an 8-4 loss to the Greyhounds.
Eastern New Mexico struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Dylan Hummel led off with a first-pitch double down the right-field line, and then Nick Schifftner drove him in with a single through the right side.
However, St. Edward's mitigated the damage when first baseman LANCE LITTLE fielded Jayden Martinez's line drive and turned it into an unassisted double play. Spencer Roach followed with a groundout to third to end the inning.
The Greyhounds opened the bottom of the third with four consecutive hits and its first five hitters reaching safely. Demetrio Archuleta opened the inning with a single to left field, then Camden Matthews and Cooper Hamilton each singled off bunts to load the bases.
Clough followed with a shot to left field for a two-RBI double, then Gafford hit Ponce before striking out Hummel. Schifftner walked to load the bases, then Martinez hit a two-RBI single through the right side for the 6-0 lead.
Eastern New Mexico added two more in the fourth, scoring on a wild pitch and an error.
CULLEN AINSWORTH hit a leadoff triple in the top of the sixth, then scored on Little's groundout to shortstop to put St. Edward's on the board. The Hilltoppers followed the same formula in the seventh with a WESTON SYMES triple to right-center, scoring on DAVIS DREWEK's groundout.
St. Edward's loaded the bases to open the eighth on two singles and an error, but Eastern New Mexico turned a double play on HUNTER CONNER's grounder that scored Ainsworth. JOSH GRAHAM followed with an RBI single through the right side to bring the score to 8-4 before Eastern New Mexico got out of the inning.
Eastern New Mexico retired three of four in the ninth to end the game.
WESLEY GAFFORD (2-1) started on the mound for St. Edward's and went four innings, surrendering eight runs with seven earned on 11 hits with two hit batters and a walk. COLIN JACKSON and JARED SCHAEFFER pitched in relief, combining to pitch four scoreless innings.
Ainsworth hit 3-for-5 with two runs scored for St. Edward's. Little and Graham had two hits each, with Little contributing a run and RBI and another RBI from Graham. Drewek, Conner, and Symes had a hit each.
Noah De La Riva (1-2) pitched 6.1 innings for Eastern New Mexico, striking out nine with two runs surrendered and seven hits for his first win. Three different Greyhounds had two RBIs.
St. Edward's drops to 8-3 with a 6-3 conference record. Eastern New Mexico improves to 5-8 with all 13 games in conference play. The teams will play a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 2:00 p.m. CST.
