Canyon, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico University baseball team concluded the 2008 season with a 17-4 and 12-11 double-header sweep against Lone Star Conference rival West Texas A&M University, on Saturday, April 26, at Conner Park. The Greyhounds’ four-game series sweep allowed them to conclude the regular season with a 26-26 overall record, including a 19-21 conference record. The Buffaloes dropped their overall record to 9-43 and 6-37 in the LSC.

The Hounds got on the board first in the opener on an RBI-single by Clayton Young (Jr., LF, Canyon, Texas/Canyon HS) to take a 1-0 lead. Thomas Green (Jr., RHP, El Paso, Texas/Andress HS) started for ENMU on the mound and kept WT scoreless in the first two innings. Eastern added to its lead with a four-run third inning, all coming off Young’s bat as he belted a grand slam to right-center to give Green a five-run cushion. The Buffs got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning with one run.

Eastern’s offense exploded for nine runs in the sixth that included a three-run homer by Ethan Wagner (So., RF, San Antonio, Texas/Cisco JC/Churchull HS), a two-RBI double by Tyler Hayes (Sr., 2B, Houston, Texas/Hastings HS), a run-scoring double by Young, a two-RBI home run by Freddy Carmona (Jr., C, San Antonio, Texas/Ranger College/Taft HS) and Wagner hurt WT a second time in the inning with a RBI-triple to give the Hounds a 14-1 lead. WT added a run in the bottom of the inning and two more in the eighth, while Eastern scored a run in each of the final three innings to take the win. Derrick Kennedy (Sr., 3B, San Antonio, Texas/Brackenridge HS) had an RBI in the seventh, Wagner drove-in a run with a sacrifice-fly in the eighth and Young, who finished with seven RBIs in the game, drove-in his final run in the ninth. Green recorded a complete-game win, giving up only four runs as he scattered 14 hits, to finish the season with a 6-3 record.

ENMU’s offense remained hot in the final game of the season, as it started the game with an eight-run first inning outburst. Carmona recorded an RBI the easy way, earning a full-count walk with the bases juiced to get the scoring under way. An error off a grounder by Seth Clabaugh (Jr., RF, Portales, N.M./Portales HS) to the shortstop scored Kennedy and was followed by a run-scoring single by Chris Eaton (1B). Paden Vendrely’s bases-clearing double was followed by a two-RBI homer by Jonathon Marbury (Sr., CF, El Paso, Texas/Ranger College/Montwood HS) to give the Hounds an 8-0 lead.

West Texas got two runs back in the bottom of the inning off starter Evan Orsak (Jr., RHP, Andrews, Texas/Andrews HS), but Eastern scored again in the second on a lead-off homerun by Hayes down the right field line for a 9-2 lead. In the fourth, Carmona’s fly ball to right allowed Hayes to tag from third and Young scored on a single by Clabaugh to give the Hounds an 11-2 lead. The Buffs attempted a comeback, scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth and three runs in the sixth to get within five runs at 11-6 going into the seventh. Vendrely led-off the top of the final inning with a solo homer, which turned out to give Eastern the margin of victory as the Buffs scored five in their last at-bat, falling one run short in the 12-11 win for the Hounds. Orsak pitched six innings to record the win and even-up his season-record at    5-5.

In the four-game series, the Greyhounds pounded WT’s pitching staff for 66 runs, managing a .429 team batting average, including an .801 slugging percentage. Kennedy, who established a school record nine RBIs in the Friday opener, drove-in 10 runs in the series, taking advantage of two homers and two doubles, while recording 10 hits. Carmona belted three homers in the series for a team-best .647 batting average and Young had a team-best 11 RBIs in the series. Altogether, the Greyhounds hit 14 homeruns in the series, more than a third of their season total of 37 homers. Carmona's 11 hits in the series gave him 81 hits this year as he breaks the school record of 80 hits in a season established in 1995 by Shane Shallenberger.