KINGSVILLE – The Angelo State baseball team will face Texas A&M-Kingsville at 3 p.m. on Friday in a must-win game for the Rams in the NCAA Division II South Central Championship at Nolan Ryan Field.

ASU (36-20) is 1-1 against the Javelinas (40-16) in the postseason this year after the two teams split games at the Lone Star Conference tournament. The Rams will have to win on Friday to stave off elimination from the regional after a 5-4 loss to St. Edward's, while the Javelinas took a 6-3 win over Colorado State-Pueblo on Thursday.

Angelo State holds a 22-16 all-time advantage over A&M-Kingsville and this will be the first meeting between the two programs in regional play.

“Our guys have a lot of character and heart and I'll take that,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. “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.”

Mike Weatherly (7-3) will be on the mound for the Rams on Friday and will be making his 14th start of the season. He is coming off a 4-0 win over Tarleton State at the conference tournament where he threw seven scoreless innings for the Rams. A right-handed senior from Mesquite, he was selected to the LSC second-team after posting a 2.88 ERA in the regular season with a team-leading 55 strikeouts in 65.2 innings of work and holds the program's record with six combined shutouts.

“All I can do in these games is go out there and give them my best stuff and give our hitters a chance to win,” Weatherly said. “I'm going to go out there and pitch my game and the hitters are going to pick me up. Commanding the strike zone and working ahead in counts will be important against them.”

The Rams come into the game hitting .304 as a team with 391 singles, 105 doubles, 24 triples and 21 home runs. Christian Summers leads ASU with a .348 batting average and now has 19 doubles after hitting two against St. Edward's and picking up two RBI. Ryan Greer also had two hits on Thursday and is hitting .305 and is tied with Quaid McKinnon with four-game hitting streaks. McKinnon, who drove in the Rams' first run with a single on Thursday, is hitting .305 this year with 33 RBI.

Summers has hit .364 against A&M-Kingsville this season with two doubles, two triples and eight RBI in six games. Greer is hitting .348 with eight hits and three RBI in those games, while Andrew LaCombe has seven hits and Lee Neumann six. McKinnon, who hit a three-run home run against the Javelinas at the conference tournament, has six RBI on five hits.

On Thursday, it was also announced that Neumann and LaCombe were selected to the Daktronics DII South Central first team, while Jake Feckley was named to the second team. Neumann is hitting .338 with 12 doubles, seven triples, six home runs and 46 RBI coming into Friday's game. LaCombe is hitting .319 with 43 RBI on 43 singles, 14 doubles, a triple and two home runs.

Taylor Taska (9-2) is thought to be the probable starter against the Rams on Friday. A right-handed junior from Kingswood, Taska was named the LSC's Co-Player of the Year along with Neumann and was also named the Daktronics South Central Player of the Year. He has 28 strikeouts and 17 walks this season and a 3.00 ERA. Taska is a dual threat for the Javelinas with a team-leading 51 RBI, 74 hits, 17 doubles and seven home runs this season at the plate.

Chris Ballou led the Javelinas at the plate this season with a .381 batting average that includes 10 doubles and three home runs and has produced 36 RBI. Joe Tallerine is hitting .363 with 57 hits, while Ben Villafuerte has 62 hits and James Black has 40 RBI to add punch to the Javelina lineup.

As a team, the Javelinas are hitting .312 with 95 doubles, 24 triples and 24 home runs. They are 13-11 at home this season and 6-10 all-time against Angelo State at Nolan Ryan Field.