SAN ANGELO – The No. 26-ranked Angelo State baseball team will play its home-opening series this weekend against Colorado School of Mines at Foster Field after playing its first eight games of the season on the road.
ASU (6-2) and CSM (2-1) have never played before in baseball and the Rams come into this season with a 179-72 record at Foster Field since the program was started in 2005. The Rams opened the season by sweeping a doubleheader from McMurry and a three-game series against Texas A&M International before falling two games to three last weekend at Lubbock Christian. The Orediggers, who are coached by former ASU assistant coach Jerod Goodale, started the season with a 3-1 win over Tarleton State before splitting a pair of games against Texas-Permian Basin last weekend in Odessa.
"I think getting back home to play is exciting for our team," ASU head coach
Kevin Brooks said. "We are a little tired from being on the road. I'm hoping we come out playing well and get things rolliing again. We have a lot of answers we have to find out right now."
The Rams started the season with a 6-0 record, matching the best start to a season in program history which was established by the 2012 team. ASU has outscored opponents 63-30 this season and is hitting .332 with 16 doubles, four triples, three home runs and 67 singles. The team has stolen 22 bases, while their opponents have stolen only four. ASU's pitching staff ERA is at 3.46 with 69 strikeouts, 25 walks and 63 hits allowed through 67.2 innings of work.
Ranking Summary
The Rams enter this weekend ranked No. 26 by CollegeBaseballLineup.com and No. 4 in the South Central region by the NCBWA. ASU is currently unranked national by the NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball and D2Baseball.com.
On the Mound
Jake Feckley established himself as the all-time winningest pitcher in Angelo State history last Friday by striking out seven and not allowing an earned run in a 5-1 win over Lubbock Christian. Feckley has been dominant through his first three starts, striking out 19, walking only three and maintaining a 0.00 ERA through 21.0 innings pitched.
A senior from Wylie, Feckley enters this weekend with an 18-8 overall career record and 131 strikeouts. He has a minuscule career ERA of 2.80 through 25 starts and 34 appearances. After transferring from Texas A&M following his freshman season, he has thrown 160.2 innings at ASU and has walked only 37 in that time. He has three saves to go along with his 18 wins and has limited the opposition to a .268 batting average. Feckley was named the Lone Star Conference Pitcher of the Week after the first two weekends of play, but did not receive the honor following his milestone win at LCU. He will start the first game of the series against Colorado School of Mines.
The weekend rotation is not solidified, but
Blake Bass and
Jason Zgardowski are probable starters for the doublehead
er. Bass would be making his first start of his career at Angelo State and second appearance on the mound, while Zgardowski will be making his second start of the season and fourth appearance. Bass, who has started six games at first base this season, is a 6-foot-7 right-hander who transferred from Texas Tech. He struck out one and allowed one hit in his only appearance this season. Zgardowski is a right-hander from San Antonio who did not receive a decision in Sunday's series finale against LCU after going 3.0 innings and allowing four runs on five hits. Zgardowski has 12 strikeouts in 8.0 innings of work in his first season at ASU.
Graylon Brown is coming off a strong relief appearance last Sunday where he went 5.0 innings with four strikeouts and only one run allowed. Brown, a right-hander from Brownwood, retired 10 straight Chaps before exiting. Brown was redshirted his first year at ASU, but made 19 appearances last season. He has 22 total appearances now in his career and two starts. He has struck out 31 batters in 42.1 innings of work in his career. Fellow sophomore
Jamie MacLean has also been strong out of the bullpen, striking out seven in 4.2 innings. A left-hander from Canada, MacLean has a 1.93 ERA this season through four appearances.
Dillon Becker (1-1) has made the most appearances this season with five in his first season at ASU.
Becker, who is a right-hander from Bastrop, has six strikeouts, three walks, five hits allowed and three earned runs allowed through 5.2 innings.
Trae Davis (1-0) has made three starts this season in his first year at ASU. A senior, Davis pitched at Baylor the past three seasons after a stellar high school career at Mexia. Davis has 10 strikeouts through 11.0 innings of work. The Rams have also received solid relief appearances from
Jake Albert,
Miles Gully and Eric Monson out of the bullpen. Albert is the most established of the three, and has made 49 appearances in his career. Albert has made four appearances this season and has 55 career strikeouts and has limited opponents to a .258 batting average against him through 93.2 innings of work in his career.
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At the Plate
Five Rams are in double digit hits through eight games, led by
Tyler Coughenour who has 14 and
Brett David's 12. Coughenour and David are each hitting .500 through the early part of this season. Coughenour, a senior from Wichita, Kan., has two doubles, two triples, a home run and five RBI. He also leads the team with 10 stolen bases and being hit by eight pitches. Coughenour was LSC second-team selection for the Rams last season after transferring from Wichita State.
David leads the team with six doubles and has added four RBI. He has split time as the team's designated hitter and playing third base. A junior from El Paso, David has nine career doubles and 35 hits. David and Coughenour have both earned LSC Hitter of the Week honors this season.
David Goggin leads ASU with nine RBI and five walks through 28 at-bats. He has 11 hits, including two doubles in his sophomore season. Like David, Goggin has played multiple positions with time at catcher, right field and second base. Coughenour and Goggin have both started the season with eight-game hitting streaks and lead the team with multi-hit games. Coughenour has four two-hit games already this season.
Nehwon Norkeh is tied with Coughenour for the team lead with 10 runs scored and is one RBI shy of Goggin for the team lead. A true freshman from Minneapolis, Norkeh has 11 hits, including two triples and has five stolen bases. He has started all eight games at center field for the Rams and currently has a seven-game hitting streak going.
Derek Tyner has nine hits and four RBI for the Rams through the first seven games of his career at ASU. Norkeh, Goggin and Coughenour have all reached base in every game this season. Tyner, a junior from Boerne, has played first base and in the outfield.
Hunter Choate is hitting .323 with 10 hits and six RBI in his sophomore season, while
Cameron Massengill has six hits and three RBI. Choate has 45 hits and 27 in his career.
Christian Summers is coming off a strong weekend in Lubbock where he had four hits and four RBI for the Rams. Summers blasted a three-run home run for his first home run of the season and third of his career at ASU. A 19th round selection by the San Diego Padres in last year's Major League Baseball draft, Summers is a .321 career hitter with 20 doubles, seven triples and 38 RBI. He played his first two seasons at the University of Texas before returning to his hometown to play for the Rams.
Reggie Rodriguez has added four hits, four RBI and seven runs scored through his first 22 at-bats of his senior season. Rodriguez, who is from Puerto Rico, is a career .308 hitter at ASU with 16 doubles, three triples and three home runs.
UP NEXT: Angelo State will return to the road next week to face St. Mary's at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in San Antonio before traveling to Lawton, Okla. next weekend to play Cameron in a four-game series which starts Lone Star Conference play.
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COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGER REPORT
The Orediggers, who went 22-27 last season, have started the season at 2-1 with a 3-1 win over Tarleton State and splitting a pair of games against UTPB last weekend. CSM is hitting .183 with their opponents at .187 in those games. They have five doubles and one triple, while the pitching staff recorded 13 strikeouts and walked seven in their time in Odessa.
Charlie Basil, a senior outfielder, led the Orediggers with four hits. He went 4-for-12 in the first three games with a double and RBI. He has led off and hit third and fourth in the lineup this season. Derke Skrdlant, Zach Bothwell and Nate Olinger had three hits each in the three games, with Olinger leading the team with two RBI.
Christian Rooney (1-0) earned the win over Tarleton State, striking out four and walking only two in 7.2 innings of work. A right-hander from Lakewood, Colo., Rooney held the Texans to only three hits in the commanding win. Ben Gilman (1-0) recorded the second win of the season for the Orediggers, striking out three and allowing no hits in 7.0 innings against the Falcons. Gilman walked only two in the seven innings of no-hit baseball before being relieved by three pitchers out of the CSM bullpen. Gilman threw 89 pitches in his first start of the season with 56 strikes. Brett Kovach (0-0) has made two appearances out of the bullpen, striking out two and allowing four hits in 2.2 innings of work.
The Orediggers will return to Colorado after this weekend's series where they'll open RMAC play next weekend against Regis University in Denver.
