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Box Score 3 Goodwell, Okla.—Back in action, the Aggies opened the 2016 season with a three-game series against Eastern New Mexico. The Greyhounds swept Saturday's double-header winning 3-0 and 10-5 over OPSU in seven and nine inning games. On Sunday, the Hounds were heeled in showdown on the mound that saw a total of ten pitchers in nine innings, and brought the Aggies their first win of season 11-7 over ENMU.
Last year's leading lefty,
Samuel Beattie, was the Aggies' opening pitcher on Saturday. Beattie took the loss in seven innings with five hits and zero earned runs; he threw five strikeouts in 29 batters faced. Eastern's Jerrott Gray earned the shutout win with seven hits, pitching the full seven innings. Gray had four strikeouts, one base on balls and one hit batter in the game.
Efficient pitching on both sides made for a quiet game at the plate. In twelve total hits, only one went for extra bases; a double in the top of the second that helped put the Greyhounds on the board. Seven freshmen took positions on the Aggies' starting lineup along with newcomer
Austin Beckner (So.-1B), and veterans Beattie (Jr.-LHP) and
Payton Osbon (Sr.-LF). Four errors on the infield in game one, resulted in the three unearned runs scored by Eastern N.M.; but the Aggies shook off the jitters and went on to commit just three errors total in the last two games of the series.
Sophomore
Adrian Lopez got the start in game two, pitching 4.1 innings for OPSU and throwing seven strikeouts while on the mound. Lopez was relieved by
Dallas Guerrero in the top of the fifth after giving up one run in the first, and five runs in the fifth; all earned. Guerrero went 1.2 innings allowing one hit and zero runs; he threw two strikeouts and picked off one runner while up.
Joel Perez entered in the top of the seventh and took four hits and two earned runs in one inning of work.
Zane Grigsby and
Felipe Beltran each put in one inning with Grigsby giving up just one hit and throwing three groundouts; Beltran allowed two earned runs on three hits in the ninth inning.
The Aggies scored two runs in the first inning of Saturday's game two:
Quinn O'Neill led off the inning advancing on a walk and was later brought home on two singles and a ground-out, and
Joseph Cerda, who reached on a single, scored on a wild pitch by ENMU.
Payton Osbon was then put on first after taking a hit at the plate in the second inning; he advanced to second on a passed ball and took third as the next two batters were walked, and hit by pitch. Osbon scored on a passed ball to give the Aggies a 3-1 lead going into the third.
The Greyhounds jumped ahead after adding five runs in the fifth and two in the seventh, and OPSU gave a good effort in the eighth sending in two runs on a big single down the third base line by
Austin Hale; but Eastern's last two runs gave them a 10-5 lead in the ninth and, closer Jarron Hill, sent the Aggies three-up/three-down to finish off the game. Lopez was given the loss for OPSU and relief pitcher Alec Lemmon got the win for the Grayhounds in four innings totaling nine hits and two earned runs with four strikeouts.
Sunday started off with two big innings for the Aggies. After Eastern fired off four runs in the first on two doubles and a homer, OPSU answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to a poor pitching performance by the Greyhounds starter, Daniel Ward. Ward walked four batters for one RBI and gave up a second run on a wild pitch; all in the first inning. The Aggies' starting pitcher,
Tristan Hubler, threw an RBI double in the top of the second to give the Hounds a 5-3 lead. Ward remained in through the second and walked four more batters and advanced three on a hit batter, wild pitch and passed ball before being replaced with two outs. Reliever Keenan Dodd's opening pitch sent a three-run double to left field off the bat of
Daniel Blake. The Aggies totaled four runs in the second to go up 7-5.
OPSU brought in one run each in innings three and four; a sac-fly by O'Neill scored
Derek Stallworth in the third, and
Juan Rubayo reached on a fielder's choice and came through on an error by short stop in the fourth. A solo home run to lead off the seventh inning prompted a pitching change for OPSU. Senior
Logan Litton came in with one away and closed out the inning with two hits and one run earned. The score 9-7, Aggies, going into the eighth brought
Zane Grigsby to the mound; Grigsby walked two ENM batters but held it together throwing a groundout and two strikeouts for zero hits in the inning. Eddie Lopez closed out the game for the Aggies in the ninth and sat down three in a row to seal the first win of the season for OPSU (11-7). Junior
Tristan Hubler earned the win in 6.1 innings; he served four strikeouts, seven groundouts and six fly-outs and allowed ten hits and six runs (five earned) for the game. Ward was given the loss for taking one hit and eight base-on-balls for seven runs (six earned).
For the series OPSU averaged .272 batting, a 5.76 ERA and .940 fielding percentage with seven total errors on the weekend. Eastern New Mexico averaged .320 in hitting with a 5.25 ERA and had five errors for a .953 average in the field.
Daniel Blake led the series in RBI with six and went four of eleven at the plate with the Aggies' only double of the series. Blake also put out 12 and had one assist at catcher. Beckner led the game in putouts with 24 from first base with one assist and zero errors. Shortstop
Ivan Silva hit the only OPSU homer in game three and
Joseph Cerda led the team with four runs on three hits. In three games the Aggies allowed eight doubles, one triple and two home runs, but the pitching crew combined for 22 strikeouts, two wild pitches and one hit batter.
Head Coach
Jason Miner offered his thoughts on OPSU Baseball's opening weekend, "In the first two games, I thought we played OK considering we had a lot of guys nervous about the start of the season, and playing their first college baseball games. We had chances in game 1 to take a lead, but we never could get the hit when we needed it. On Sunday, our guys came out and did a great job taking advantages of Eastern's mistakes, and were real selective at the plate. Eastern is a solid team and it was a good to get a win against them the first weekend out."
The Aggies will take to the road this week competing in Moore, Okla. on Wednesday against Hillsdale Baptist before heading to Searcy, Ark. to take on Harding University Friday and Saturday; live Stats and video are available for the weekend games. The team returns for a ten-game home stretch starting on Feb. 17 with a single game against Fort Hays State at 1 p.m.
