LAWTON – The Cameron baseball team secured their first home during an 11-inning battle with Eastern New Mexico on Friday, before falling in the night-cap to split the Lone Star Conference double-header.

Cameron entered the weekend yet to play in front of their home crowd after opening the season at West Texas A&M, where the went 1-2, last weekend.
In game one against the Greyhounds, the Aggies needed 11 innings to put away the Greyhounds for their second win of the 2021 season and the first at McCord Field.

The story early on was the solid starts by Cameron's Michael Womack. Womack did something that no CU starter has been able to do this season, get past the third inning. The Lawton native went 6.2 innings on the mound and only gave up one hit and struck out dive. Control was the issue for the Aggie starter, as Womack walked six greyhound hitters and hit an additional three.

Cameron was on the wrong side of a pair of double-plays early on, but they were able to get on the board in the second as Sebastian Figga drove in Ryan Carter all the way from third on a deep double to left-centerfield.

Womack got into trouble in the seventh, loading the bases before being pulled for Tyler Garcia. Garcia got the big strikeout to end the inning. In the bottom half, Erik Ohman put the Aggies on top by two with a big homer over the leftfield fence.

After a scoreless eighth, the Aggies called on Tyler Gregg to get the final three outs, but the junior from Farmington, Ark. gave up a pair of runs on three hit batters, a double, and a wild pitch. CU skipper Kyle Willimas was forced to bring in Jayce Clem from his spot at third to get he final two outs of the inning, but the damage had been done and the score was tied through eight and a half innings of play.

CU was held hitless in the ninth and then both teams were unable to produce any offense in the 10th. Clem struck out four batters in the final three innings combined, proving the move to him in relief was the right one.

Eastern New Mexico ran into their own control issues in the bottom of the 11th, as relief pitcher Cooper Hamilton hit Clem, walked Jordan Harrison-Dudley, and then hit Nate Vargo to load the bases. After strikeout by a CU pinch-hitter, Hamilton nailed Kalen Haynes with a pitch to bring home Clem from third and end the game.

Clem earned his first win of the season, with 2.2 no-hit innings of work and four strikeouts. He was also 2-4 at the plate with a run scored. Clem was responsible for a fourth of CU's hits as they finished with eight and stranded six runners on the bases.

The Aggie pitching staff combined for 12 strikeouts, eight walks, and six hit batters, but stranded 13 Greyhounds on the basepaths.

Eastern New Mexico got the game two scoring started in the second as Nicholas Tamez hit a ball over the rightfield fence.

Cameron answered with two of their own in the third. Beau Williams tripled to lead the inning and then scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Tyler Coleman. Clem then hit a ball to deep center to give the Black and Gold a 2-1 advantage.

After Vargo came in to score on a Cooper Edwards groundout in the fourth, ENMU answered with an RBI double by Matthew Kory in the next half inning.

The Black and Gold responded with a two-run homer by Harrison-Dudley in the fifth, but the Greyhounds added a run in the sixth and then tied the game at five with a two-run homer of their own.

After a scoreless eighth, ENMU led off the top of the ninth with a double by Jack Thompson who then scored on a Trevor Moses sac-fly to deep left field giving the Hounds a one run advantage.

Damien Acosta continued to deal, slamming the door on the Aggies in the bottom half of the ninth inning, the lone Aggie base runner coming via a Cooper Edwards double into center field.

The Hounds not only secured their first win of the 2021 season in this contest, but their first win at McCord Field since 2017. This snapped a seven game winning streak for the Aggies over the Hounds and sets up a rubber match on Saturday.

The three-game series between the two teams will be decided in a rubber match on Saturday, Feb. 27, with first pitch set for 12 p.m.