SAN ANGELO – Mike Weatherly threw eight scoreless innings and Lee Neumann had four RBI as the No. 14-ranked Angelo State baseball team earned a 4-1 non-conference win over No. 11 Southern Arkansas on Friday in the series opener at Foster Field.  

“Southern Arkansas is a great team and I think our motor is probably running a little higher than usual with the home opener,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. “I think it (Neumann's home run) caused us to take a deep breath and relax and play.”

Weatherly had a career-day on the mound for the Rams (5-0), striking out 10 and taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning and only allowing three hits throughout the day. Bryant Rutledge came into the game in the ninth inning and recorded the save in his first appearance since the 2011 season.

“I just wanted to go out and throw a lot of strikes and pound the zone and compete,” Weatherly said. “I felt I did a good job of that today. The defense did a great job of helping me out. (Tyler) Coughenour made a couple of timely double plays and Neumann and Reggie (Rodriguez) made some great catches in the outfield."

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Neumann opened scoring for the Rams with a two-run home run into the left-field bullpen in the first inning and followed with a two-run single in the third. The senior center fielder went 2 for 3 in the game and is now hitting .571 on the season through his first 21 at-bats.

“In big games jumping ahead early is key,” Neumann said. “We got the momentum going early in the game and carried it throughout. I was just sitting on the off-speed and laying off the fastballs until later in the game. First two at-bats, I was just looking for the breaking ball.”

Quaid McKinnon had Angelo State's first hit of the game and scored on Neumann's home run, while Reggie Rodriguez went 2 for 4  and Brett David had his first hit of the season in the game to account for the six ASU hits against SAU's James Baune who threw all eight innings for the Muleriders. The Rams went 3 for 5 on the day with runners on base.

Baune (1-1) threw a strong game and settled in after giving up the four runs through three innings. He finished the game with eight strikeouts and only walked one Ram. Tyler Cameron led SAU with two hits in the Muleriders first loss of the season.

Weatherly's 10 strikeouts came two shy of tying Rick Reyna's 12 that set the program's single-game program record. Reyna struck out 12 Ouachita Baptist batters last season at Foster Field. The eight innings pitched were also a career-high for Weatherly who served as the team's closer last season.

Angelo State improves to 1-4 all-time against Southern Arkansas going into Saturday's doubleheader which starts at 1 p.m. back at Foster Field. Jake Feckley (1-0) will start the first game on Saturday with Michael Lange (1-0) starting the series finale for the Rams.

 “We have to go out and win that first one to secure the series and then see what happens from there,” Brooks said.