BOX SCORE  //  POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

KINGSVILLE – Angelo State's only goal Friday was to get to Saturday.

With a 9-1 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville secured on the second day of the NCAA Division II South Central Baseball Championship, now the goal is to get to Sunday.

“You don't want to go home,” said ASU senior pitcher Mike Weatherly, who allowed only one run in seven innings of work in the win. “This is it. Do or die. Win or go home. It was a big win for us and all we kept saying was to get to tomorrow.”

ASU (37-20), which was facing elimination after Thursday's loss to St. Edward's, will face St. Mary's (38-16) in an elimination game at 3 p.m. on Saturday with the winner advancing to the regional's final day.

“Our backs were up against the wall, but we're used to that,” ASU senior Andrew LaCombe said. “The mindset was that there is no tomorrow if we didn't win today and we played with that attitude.”

LaCombe got the Rams on the board first, hitting a solo home run to left field to answer the Javelinas' only run of the game which came in the top of the second inning. The home run was LaCombe's third of the season and the sixth of his career as a Ram.

“Andrew's home run was big to answer immediately and get us back tied,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said.

Angelo State and Javelinas would go each go scoreless in the third and fourth innings before ASU broke the game open with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on five hits. Ryan Greer opened the inning with a triple to right-center field on a 3-1 count and would break the 1-1 score on a Tyler Coughenour double. Christian Summers then drove in Coughenour with his seventh triple of the season and would score the third run of the inning on a wild pitch to give the Rams a 4-1 advantage.

“The guys did a great job of picking me up,” Weatherly said. “I really didn't have my best stuff, but I battled and the got me.”

Weatherly (8-3) finished the game with four strikeouts and scattered eight hits in the game. He stranded 11 Javelinas on base in a 99-pitch effort on a hot and humid day in Kingsville.

“I think it really all started on the mound with Mike. I thought he went out there and won it on guts,” said Brooks of Weatherly. “He pitched really good and kept us in the game. He did a great job of getting himself out of jams with big pitches at big times.”

The Rams would add cushion to their lead with two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth inning to improve to 2-1 against the Javelinas in the postseason. Greer, who now has a five-game hit streak going, went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, while Coughenour and LaCombe each led the Rams with three hits. LaCombe and Quaid McKinnon had two RBI each and Reggie Rodriguez added two hits and an RBI.

“We struggled early with not getting good at-bats, but we stayed with it,” Greer said. “We just kept battling and were behind Mike the whole way. We didn't want to go home. We're a bunch of competitors and knew that if we lost we would be going home. We don't want that.”

A&M-Kingsville's Taylor Taska (9-3) received the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits. Taska, who was the LSC's Co-Player of the Year with ASU's Lee Neumann, struck out six and walked three in the loss. Chris Ballou led the Javelinas with three hits, while Joe Tallerine had the lone RBI with a single to left field in the second inning to score Matt Perez. The Javelinas will play at 11 a.m. on Saturday against the loser of the Colorado Mesa-St. Mary's game which started at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Angelo State and St. Mary's have never met in a regional tournament. The Rams took the only meeting between the two teams 5-2 earlier this season at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio and have a 12-6 advantage in the all-time series. The Rattlers are coming off a 23-4 win over Colorado State-Pueblo on Thursday and won last season's South Central Championship in Warrensburg, Mo.

“They won this tournament last year and want to defend their title,” Brooks said. “There is nobody that I have more respect for in DII baseball than them. They got 30 hits today and scored 23 runs and that's pretty scary. They pitch and play defense, but we're going to show up and be ready to go. We'll have to play very well to have an opportunity to win the game.”