SAN ANGELO – A lack of love in the preseason polls has quickly turned into infatuation for the Angelo State baseball team following a Valentine's weekend sweep of Lubbock Christian which extended its winning streak to six games coming into this weekend's home series against Regis University at Foster Field.

The Rams (7-1) have played their way into two of four Division II national baseball polls, jumping to No. 17 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rankings and to No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. ASU is not ranked by d2baseballnews.com, but is ranked No. 4 in their South Central poll.The Rams are also not ranked by Perfect Game which released its poll on Wednesday.

ASU, which was ranked as high as No. 10 last season, reemerged into the national discussion after starting the season with three-game sweeps of Texas A&M International and Lubbock Christian after starting the season with a doubleheader split at McMurry. The Rams are hitting .369 on the season with 96 total hits, including 22 doubles, two triples and 10 home runs. The pitching staff has been steady throughout with Steve Naemark, Blake Bass and Bryce Zak leading the way.

Naemark was named the LSC Pitcher of the Week after a 12-strikeout performance against Lubbock Christian last Saturday and is 1-0 with 23 strikeouts and only two walks through his first 17 innings of work this season. Bas (2-0) has a 1.69 ERA with 14 strikeouts and only four walks in 16 innings, while Zak (2-1) has a 1.93 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 9.1 innings. Zak had six strikeouts last Sunday in the series finale over the Chaps in his first start of the season. Graylon Brown (1-0) has three saves and four strikeouts in five appearances, while Trae Davis has five strikeouts and has not allowed a run in four innings this season.

Paxton DeLaGarza started the season on a seven-game hitting streak and leads ASU with a .484 batting average with 15 hits, while J.C. Snyder is currently on a six-game hitting streak and is hitting .483 with five doubles and eight RBI. Hunter Spear is at .474 with nine singles, Derek Tyner is hitting .429 with 12 hits and six RBI and Brett David leads the team with 11 RBI on 10 hits and is at a .400 average. Nehwon Norkeh has started his sophomore season with three home runs, five doubles and 13 hits (.394 average) and Jarryd Klemm is hitting .321 with nine hits and three RBI. Cameron Massengill has started each game behind the plate and has seven hits and five RBI, while Cody Semler hit his first home run of the season last Sunday and has scored five runs.

The Rams return to action this weekend with a three-game set against Regis University at Foster Field. The series will start with a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday before the two teams play the series finale at 11 a.m. on Sunday. ASU was originally scheduled to play at Colorado School of Mines this weekend but were forced to cancel the series because of weather and then set up the three-game set against Regis.