PORTALES, N.M. – St. Edward's baseball rearranged its lineup and got back on track against Eastern New Mexico University, defeating the Greyhounds 5-3 to split the four-game road series.
CARSON BLAKELEY (W, 1-0) went five innings, striking out five with five hits, a walk, and three runs surrendered, with two of those runs earned.
Blakeley retired nine of the first 10 hitters, and St. Edward's gave him three runs through three-and-a-half innings.
TREVOR SEBEK hit a two-out single through the right, and
TRAVIS CHESTNUT drove him in with an RBI double.
St. Edward's put two on with one out in the fourth when
MARCO BARRERA singled to center field, and Eastern New Mexico starting pitcher Julian Lopez walked
KHAMANI BLAKNEY.
DYLAN TATE drove Barrera in with an RBI double to center field, and then
NICHOLAS ANDERSON drove in another run on a groundout to second for the 3-0 lead.
Eastern New Mexico broke through in the fourth with back-to-back, two-out singles from Willie Ponce and Tucker Gideon. Ponce showed his speed with an infield single, then stole second and scored from there on Gideon's single through the right side.
Blakeley went the circuitous route to retire the Greyhounds in order in the fifth, surrendering a two-out single to Kyle Kiernan and then picking him off at first.
St. Edward's manufactured one run and was gifted another in the sixth. Barrera hit a leadoff single off reliever Klevert Martina in the fifth, Blakney moved him over with a sacrifice bunt, and Tate drove him in with a single to left field.
Tate stole second, and a rattled Martina gave him third on a balk and walked Anderson, prompting Eastern New Mexico to turn to Marc Rios out of the bullpen. That exasperated matters when Rios walked
JEREMY HILL and Sebek to plate another Hilltopper run for the 5-1 lead.
Luciano Terilli and Jalen Freeman ended Blakeley's afternoon with a leadoff double and RBI single in the sixth. St. Edward's turned to
BEN SMEDSHAMMER out of the bullpen, and Eastern New Mexico loaded the bases with an error and single.
CARLO FIGUEROA mitigated the damage with a critical 6-4-3 double play, scoring one run but taking the tying run off the base paths.
PARKER TENNILL replaced Smedshammer, and St. Edward's escaped the inning without further damage. Tennill went 3.1 innings, allowing three hits with no walks, no runs, and a strikeout.
Sebek hit 2-for-3 with two walks, a run, and an RBI from the leadoff spot. Barrera and Tate each hit 2-for-4. Barrera scored two runs, and Tate had two RBI and a run. Chestnut had one double and an RBI.
St. Edward's improves to 5-3. The Hilltoppers will host Cameron (3-5) next weekend for a four-game series, starting with a single game on Friday, a doubleheader on Saturday, and a final game on Sunday.
