BOX SCORE

KINGSVILLE – Angelo State stranded runners on second and third base in the seventh and eighth innings in a 5-4 loss to St. Edward's on Thursday in the opening game of the NCAA Division II South Central Championship at Nolan Ryan Field.

“I thought for us that we didn't execute offensively in our situational hitting,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. “That has been a bugaboo for us all year. We have gotten better at it in the past month, but unfortunately it reared its ugly head here. It ended up being the difference in the game.”

A must-win situation now presents itself throughout the rest of the tournament, starting on Friday when they'll play at 3 p.m. against the winner of the Texas A&M-Kingsville and Colorado State-Pueblo game which will be played at 7 p.m. tonight. ASU knows this scenario after also dropping the opening game of the Lone Star Conference tournament before battling back with three wins and reaching the championship final.

“It's the situation we've been in all year,” Brooks said. “Our guys have a lot of character and heart and I'll take that. We feel good. We go out and win tomorrow and it changes everything. We understand that and will come out and do everything we can to win.”

ASU (36-20) was down 3-0 through five innings after the Hilltoppers(39-15) scored three runs in the bottom of the second, but battled back to take a 4-3 lead after scoring four runs on three hits and two errors in the sixth. Ryan Greer scored the first run of the game for the Rams after reaching on a fielder's choice and being brought home by an RBI single through the right side of the infield from Quaid McKinnon. Lee Neumann delivered another single to right field and Christian Summers highlighted the inning with a two-run double over the center fielder's head to score Neumann and Greer to tie the game. Summers scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Andrew LaCombe to give ASU a 4-3 lead.

St. Edward's would quickly square the game in the bottom of the sixth when Marshall Buford hit a home run on a 1-1 count over the left-field wall. Cutter Runte started the bottom of the seventh with a single and his pinch runner, Beau Rogers, would score the game-winning run on a CJ Manning single through the middle of the ASU defense.

“I felt pretty good and was able to use the breaking ball pretty effectively to keep them off balance,” said ASU pitcher Jake Feckley. “I didn't do a good enough job of keeping them off the board. I have to do a better job when we put up a four-spot to take the lead and put up a zero. I threw two bad pitches in a row and he was sitting on it. That's on me.”

Despite relinquishing the lead and receiving the loss, Feckley (10-5) threw a strong game for the Rams against the Hilltoppers. The junior had seven strikeouts and only walked one in a 107-pitch effort on a hot and humid day in Kingsville. Feckley went 6.1 innings before Austin Church and Graylon Brown came on in relief. Brown struck out one and allowed only one hit in his appearance.

Greer, McKinnon, Summers and Reggie Rodriguez each had two hits for the Rams who finished the game with 11 hits as a team. Summers hit two doubles in the game and now has 17 on the season, while Greer hit his 10th double of the season with a one-out shot to center field in the seventh inning, but was stranded there along with Tyler Coughenour who was at third.

Manning led St. Edward's with a three-hit game, while Nate Bobrowski, Buford and Joe Pirozzolo each added two hits. Brannon Easterling (12-3) earned the win for the Hilltoppers after striking out six and scattering 11 hits in an eight-inning start. AJ Rataic recorded his seventh save of the season by recording the final three outs of the game in the ninth.

St. Edward's will play the 7 p.m. game on Friday against the loser of the St. Mary's-Colorado Mesa game which started at 3 p.m. today.

Angelo State is now 7-6 all-time in NCAA DII regional games and falls to 1-2 against St. Edward's in postseason play.