LSC RELEASE

SAN ANGELO – Motivated is the reaction the Angelo State baseball players are experiencing as they look at the Lone Star Conference preseason poll which was announced on Wednesday.

The Rams, coming off a 19-17 LSC record, a seventh-place finish and no postseason appearance in 2011, have been tabbed in the fourth position with Abilene Christian in 2012 behind Incarnate Word, Tarleton State and Cameron. ASU was picked to finish third in last year's poll.

“Hopefully our guys will not be too happy about where we are picked,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. “Fourth may be the lowest we have ever been picked since our very first year. The good thing is, except for last year, we have always finished higher than where we were picked.”

Angelo State received two first-place votes and 91 points in the poll which was voted on by LSC coaches, sports information directors and media representatives. Incarnate Word garnered 13 of 21 first-place nods to finish as the preseason selection to win the conference. Tarleton State ranks second after a 23-10 record last year and Cameron is positioned in third following its 22-11 conference campaign in 2011. West Texas A&M (6), Texas A&M-Kingsville (7) and Eastern New Mexico (8) round out this year's preseason poll with the subtraction of last year's LSC tournament champion Southeastern Oklahoma, Southwestern Oklahoma, Central Oklahoma, East Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State.

“When you look up and down the conference, I think there are a lot of unknowns,” Brooks said. “I don't think there is a weak team out there and that any of the eight teams can be at the top of the standings. You just have to be ready to play every game and get as many wins as you can.”

Incarnate Word finished last season as the regular-season LSC champions with a 24-9 record and return the LSC Preseason Pitcher of the Year in Kirk Jewasko who went 12-1 as a junior with 103 strikeouts. The Cardinals also return Jorge Guarneros who went 11-1 with a 2.83 ERA.

“They had a great team last year and return two great pitchers this season,” said Brooks, whose team will host the Cardinals at Foster Field for a four-game series from March 23-25. “They lost some of their hitting from last year, but with two dominant pitchers they are always going to have the ability to win a series. They are a team we are going to have to battle with.”

West Texas A&M's Jess Cooper was tabbed LSC Preseason Player of the Year. The senior infielder from Belle Fourche, SD, topped NCAA Division II in batting average and on-base percentage en route to first team All-LSC acclaim in 2011. Cooper finished the year with a school-record .494 average with 19 doubles, three triples, six home runs.

Angelo State, which returns 14 players and has 20 newcomers on its roster, opens its season with a four-game series from Feb. 3-5 against Ouachita Baptist at Foster Field. The Rams are 7-3 all-time against the Arkadelphia, Ark., university – including beating the Tigers once in NCAA Division II tournament play. The Rams will play a 20-game non-conference schedule before opening its' 28-game Lone Star Conference schedule at Texas A&M-Kingsville on March 16.

“We are better today than two weeks ago when we started,” Brooks said. “If we keep working and improving like we have been, I expect us to be a very good baseball team at the end of the season.”

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1	Incarnate Word	13	157
2	Tarleton State	1	126
3	Cameron	2	91
4	Angelo State	2	91
5	Abilene Christian	1	91
6	West Texas A&M	1	83
7	Texas A&M-Kingsville	1	78
8	Eastern New Mexico	0	25