PORTALES, N.M. (Baseball) – Jimmy Roche went 3-for-4 and three Javelinas drove in two runs apiece but #RV/30 Texas A&M University-Kingsville (24-16, 18-9 LSC) fell to the offensive explosion of the Eastern New Mexico University (14-24, 9-15 LSC) bats, 19-9, on Friday evening at Greyhound Stadium.
Roche finished with a triple, RBI and run scored and
Clint Wallace and
Brayton Carlson recorded two hits apiece and each drove in two runs along with
Ryan Fickel.
After a scoreless first, the Javelinas struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second inning after a leadoff single by
Hayden Vesely and walk to Wallace.
Christian Caudle drove in Vesely and Carlson followed with an RBI base knock.
However, things went south in the bottom frame, as the Greyhounds scored eight runs to take an 8-2 lead.
ENMU tacked on a run in the third to make it a 9-2 ballgame but the Javelinas answered with three in the top of the fourth on a two-run double by Fickel and RBI single by Wallace.
The Greyhounds responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth.
TAMUK scored a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh, but ENMU added another big inning, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to take game one, 19-9.
Ryan Benitez (6-3) surrendered eight runs in 2.0 innings in the losing effort and Mike Peters (1-4) earned his first win of 2015 despite allowing eight runs in 6.0 innings.
Daniel Word went 3-for-4 with a career-high seven RBI in the win for Eastern.
The series resumes tomorrow with games two and three, beginning at 2 p.m. CT. Live stats and video ($) will be available and can be accessed by visiting JavelinaAthletics.com, the official home of Texas A&M-Kingsville.
For full coverage of Kingsville baseball, please follow @TAMUKBaseball14 on Twitter and @JavelinaAthletics on Instagram, like our Facebook page (Javelina Nation) and subscribe to the JavelinaAthletics YouTube channel.
