The No. 2 Rams sweep the Greyhounds on their way to the next round of the LSC Tourney
No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Angelo State baseball avoided a third game after beating eighth-seeded Eastern New Mexico 9-6 after nine innings on Saturday to move onto the next round of the Lone Star Tournament.
After beating the Greyhounds (23-28) 11-0 in a seven-inning run-rule on Friday, the Rams (44-8) put away the Greyhounds 9-6 despite a late surge on Saturday in the second game in a best-of-three series. The win extends the Rams winning streak to 20 games against the Greyhounds dating back to a loss in the LSC tournament in 2018.
The Rams were favorites to win the first-round matchup against the Greyhounds on their journey to a third-straight NCAA Division II World Series tournament appearance and coach Kevin Brooks came away from the two games disappointed in how his team performed.
“Just not very good approaches when it counts,” Brooks said. “It’s disappointing…offensively I thought all weekend was very disappointing in how we played, so we got to fix that, or we’ll have a short stay next week.”
The Rams will take on Lubbock Christian University in the next round of the LSC tournament starting Thursday. All the games in the series will be played at Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium.
Saturday’s highlights
The Greyhounds struck first scoring on a Ponce double and RBI to go up 1-0. Angelo State responded by scoring six unanswered runs including senior Justin Hardy’s first home run of the season. After two home runs from Eastern New Mexico freshman Jonatan Clough in the fifth inning and seventh inning, the Greyhounds were down 8-4 entering the bottom of the seventh inning. Catcher Tyler Bogg responded for the Rams with his first home run of the season to give them a five-run cushion going into the eighth. Eastern New Mexico loaded the bases at the top of the inning with no outs but scored two runs after Caleb Heurtez came onto the mound in relief. Heurtez was the Rams sixth pitcher of the evening and finished the game in the ninth, picking up the save as the Rams won 9-6.
Saturday’s stars
Braxton Pearson got the start and was credited with the win for the Rams improving to 7-1 on the season after tossing two innings giving up three hits, one run and had two strikeouts. Austin Teel came in for Pearson in the third inning and pitched for three innings giving up two hits one run and three strikeouts. Senior Jacob Guerrero went 4 for 4 with three doubles, one RBI and two runs scored. Grad Student Tyler Boggs hit his first home run of the season and was 3 for 4 at the plate with two doubles, two RBI and two runs.
They said it
Rams coach Kevin Brooks on how his pitchers performed on Saturday: “I thought Pearson threw great, Teel threw great, (Mason) Bryant threw great and Caleb (Heurtez) threw great…except for the walks. You know but when you go walk the bases loaded there to start the seventh or the eighth, that’s not exactly the way you want to start that but Caleb (Heurtez) did a good job.”
Rams catcher Tyler Boggs on his first home run of the season: “It was a good time for (my first home run)”, Boggs said. “I had given up on it, I said, ‘You know what, it’s not gonna happen. I’m fine with that,’ but yeah it was a good time for that.”
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: The No. 2 Rams sweep the Greyhounds to advance in LSC Tournament
