April 8, 2006

Box Score

The West Texas A&M baseball team dropped a pair of games to border-rival Eastern New Mexico University Friday night at Portales, N.M., dropping game one, 33-14, and then letting game two slip away, 11-8. The two teams will meet again Saturday to finish the series, first pitch at 4 p.m. central.

WTAMU will fall to 18-20 overall and 3-3 in LSC South Division play. ENMU advances to 21-19 mark for the season, and also to 3-3 in South matches.

Game one was packed full of offense and the Buffs could not keep the Greyhounds off of the scoreboard, with nine pitchers being used between both teams. The game was close until ENMU put up 10 runs in the fourth, and sealed the match with six runs in the seventh and eight in the eighth inning.

The two teams combined for 44 hits and 47 runs. Sophomore Brady Ribinskas launched his fifth home run of the season with a three-run blast in the third inning. He finished the game 3-4 with three RBI, three runs scored and a walk. Junior catcher Tyler Glynn also went 3-4 with 4 RBI. Junior A.J. Knight went 4-5 with 4 RBI and 2 runs scored.

Ruben Batista started the game for WTAMU, but chased out early, allowing nine runs in only three innings pitched. He was followed by Brandon Wright, Josh Palmer, Ben Prewett, Rory Gray and Frankie Rodriguez.

In game two, the Buffs took an 8-7 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Greyhounds responded with four runs. The Buffs could not recover in the top of the seventh, and ENMU stole the game, 11-8.

Sophomore right hander Cody Sessions started for the Buffs, allowing eight runs in 5 innings, striking out two batters and giving up 11 hits. He also managed to hit four batters and balk twice. Wright came in relief for Sessions in the sixth, but after four batters he was replaced by senior Patrick Wallis. Wallis gave up a two-run single and then another RBI single. Since the runners that scored were from Wright, he was saddled with the loss, even though he pitched only 1/3 of an inning, moving him to 3-2 on the year.

Wallis was the designated hitter before her took the mound, going 2-2 with two RBI and a run scored. Senior Drew Conley went 2-4 with an run scored, and sophomore Josh McCreary went 2-3 with a run scored and a walk.

WTAMU will return to Potter County Memorial Stadium next weekend, April 14-15, to host Angelo State University.