MEDIA COVERAGE
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SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State baseball team will play its final five home games of the season this week with a non-conference game against McMurry at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday before hosting Tarleton State this weekend in a pivotal Lone Star Conference series at Foster Field.

ASU (24-13, 9-7 LSC) is currently third in the LSC standings behind the Texans (12-4 LSC) and Abilene Christian (10-6 LSC). The Rams are 10-9 at home this season and 15-6 in non-conference play, including a 7-2 victory over McMurry (15-20, 13-14 Heartland) on Feb. 12 in Abilene in what was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Tuesday's game will be Angelo State's final non-conference regular season game of the season.

"We need to come out and continue playing well," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "We've been playing good baseball besides the final two innings on Sunday. We have to snap that out of our minds and keep this thing going. We have a pattern of getting better going and we need to continue that."

Bryce Zak (3-1) is scheduled to make his eighth start of the season for the Rams and second against the War Hawks. Zak, a sophomore right-hander, threw 6.1 scoreless innings against McMurry in the first meeting and earned his first of two LSC Pitcher of the Week honors following the performance. Zak has struck out 25 in 35 innings of work in his first season at ASU after transferring back to his hometown after two years at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Charlie Hejny (2-2), a senior right-hander, is the probable starter for the War Hawks. Hejny is a Nevada native, but played at Eastfield College along with ASU's Mike Weatherly and Travis Stavinoha. Hejny will be making his first start of the season and 13th appearance. He has 13 strikeouts in 19.2 innings this season.

Angelo State comes into Tuesday's game with a team batting average of .308 with 258 singles, 73 doubles, 17 triples and 11 home runs. The Rams have also taken 143 walks as a team and have a .402 on-base percentage. ASU's 90 stolen bases lead the conference.

Andrew LaCombe had a strong week at the plate last week and leads the Rams with a .362 batting average coming into the week. LaCombe, a senior from Southlake, has 28 singles, 12 doubles and a triple and home run. He is second on the team with 32 RBI and has been versatile in the field by playing in left field along with his main role at catcher. LaCombe has thrown out more base runners attempting to steal (34) than anyone in ASU history and needs only two more hits to reach 100 in his career.

Lee Neumann hit his conference-leading seventh triple of the season last Sunday at ENMU and now has 16 in his career. The senior is the program leader in triples and comes into the McMurry game with a .371 career batting average with 127 hits. He is hitting .343 this season and leads the team with 34 RBI and has 13 stolen bases. Neumann has reached base in 15 straight games.

Quaid McKinnon took four walks in the ENMU series and now has 33 walks this season and 74 for his career (3^rd all-time behind Trey Carter, 77, and Clay Calfee, 97). McKinnon is hitting .328 in his senior season and is a .345 career hitter at ASU. The senior has 11 doubles this season and 10 stolen bases. He comes into his final home series with 112 hits, including 28 doubles and 66 RBI in his career.

Ryan Greer leads the team and is second in the conference with 20 stolen bases in senior season. Greer, who has stolen 49 bases in his career, is third in program history. A transfer from Paradise Valley Community College with McKinnon, Greer is a .342 career hitter at ASU with 72 RBI. He is hitting .306 this season with 14 RBI and 11 walks. He also has the best fielding percentage (.992) in program history on 120 chances.

Christian Summers comes into this week with a .356 batting average with 12 doubles and 21 RBI in his first season at ASU. Summers leads the Rams with six multi-hit games this season and is currently on a four-game hitting streak. The junior shortstop has walked 23 times and has four triples and two home runs. Reggie Rodriguez, also a junior in his first season at ASU, is hitting .331 with 11 doubles and 23 RBI, while junior Tyler Coughenour is hitting .283 and is second on the team with 19 stolen bases. Coughenour hit an inside-the-park home run and a triple in the Rams' series finale at ENMU on Sunday.

Hunter Choate and David Goggin have been underclassmen stepping into important roles for the Rams this season. Choate, a redshirt freshman from Athens, is hitting .310 with 17 singles and a double while also providing 15 RBI playing a solid third base this season. Goggin, a true freshman from Red Wing, Minn. is hitting .292 with 10 RBI. Goggin has played in the outfield and at catcher for the Rams this season and is currently on a team-leading five-game hitting streak.    

McMurry, which has wins over nationally ranked St. Mary's and NCBWA regionally ranked St. Edward's on its resume, will come into San Angelo with a 5-10 road record and hitting .260 as a team this season. The War Hawks have hit 48 doubles, five triples and seven home runs.

Jon Mejia leads McMurry with a .357 batting average with seven doubles, two triples and three home runs. The junior from Manvel has 15 RBI in 25 games played this season. Dylan DeLeon is hitting .292 in his senior season out of Weslaco with seven doubles and seven RBI, while Nick Marsh is a sophomore who is hitting .276 with 21 hits. Ricky Garcia is tied with Mejia with the team lead with 15 RBI and is hitting .266 and leads the team with eight doubles.

Angelo State comes into this week with a 329-179 all-time record, including a 176-70 record at Foster Field. The Rams are known for getting stronger as the season progresses and are 137-66 in program history in games played after April 1st (114-49 in regular-season games).

UP NEXT: The Rams and Texans will meet at Foster Field for the first time since last year's LSC tournament championship game. ASU is 26-10 all-time against the Texans, but the two teams split last season's regular-season series in Stephenville before ASU took two of three meetings in the tournament. The Rams won the LSC tournament title with a 6-0 win in the final game. The Texans host St. Mary's on Wednesday before traveling to San Angelo for the series opener on Friday. TSU, which is coming off a 3-1 series win over Incarnate Word, is 7-9-1 on the road this season. Its tie came in a 0-0 game at Ouachita Baptist due to darkness. Sunday's game will be Senior Day for Nate Alter, Austin Church, James Conlee, Ryan Greer, Andrew LaCombe, Michael Lange, Quaid McKinnon, Lee Neumann, Bryant Rutledge, Travis Stavinoha and Mike Weatherly.