SAN ANGELO – The midseason slump for the Angelo State baseball team continued on Sunday with Texas A&M-Kingsville taking a 6-3 Lone Star Conference win over the Rams in the series finale at Foster Field.

ASU (17-12, 7-9 LSC) has now lost seven of its last eight games and dropped the four-game series 1-3 against the Javelinas (16-11, 10-6 LSC) who are now in second place in the conference standings through the first four weeks of LSC play. The Rams, who were limited to a .209 batting average in the series and committed seven errors in the four games, are in fourth in the standings entering next weekend's four-game series against Eastern New Mexico at Foster Field.

"We really hurt ourselves this weekend," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "Our bullpen struggled and our bats did not show up. When you're not producing runs it makes winning games a lot harder, especially when things aren't going your way in the field. Kingsville deserves credit for making plays when they needed to. I still believe we are a really good ball club, but we're going to have to start playing like that again and get past the mistakes we've been making the past two weeks."

Dillon Becker (3-3) received the loss for the Rams on Sunday despite matching his career high with seven strikeouts and allowing only four hits in 5.2 innings of work in his fourth start of the season. The Javelinas scored two runs on two hits and an error in the first inning off Becker, but the sophomore stranded two on base by coaxing an inning-ending double play turned by shortstop Tyler Coughenour, second baseman Hunter Choate and first baseman Derek Tyner. Coughenour would lead off the bottom of the first inning with a double to right field and score on a David Goggin ground out, but the Rams would strand a runner on base and go to the second down a run.

Becker would settle in and keep the Javelinas off the board with four straight scoreless innings, including shutting TAMUK down in order in the second and third innings. ASU, which stranded four runners on base in the game, also went scoreless until a Nehwon Norkeh two-out double down the left-field line cut its deficit to 4-2 in the seventh inning. The Javelinas responded in the eighth with two runs off a Brian Frazier double.

Coughenour led the Rams at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored, while Cameron Massengill went 2-for-3 and Summers and Blake Bass each singled. The Rams finished the game with seven hits off TAMUK starter Matt Rhodes (4-2) who earned the win after striking out five in 7.0 innings. Ryan Scott earned his third save of the weekend by recording the final three outs of the game.

The Javelinas also finished the game with seven hits, but stranded 12 runners on base after reaching base eight times on walks. James Blake and Ryan Guedry led TAMUK with two hits with Frazier driving in two runs on his eighth inning single.

SERIES NOTES: Christian Summers led the Rams at the plate throughout the series going 7-for-12 with two doubles, a triple, two walks and three RBI… Summer, who played most of the series at third base, also played second base and recorded a save by closing out ASU's win on Saturday in his first appearance on the mound in his career… Cameron Massengill finished the series 4-for-7 and Tyler Coughenour went 4-for-14 with four runs scored… Coughenour had two doubles in the series and is now hitting .313 with eight doubles this season… Blake Bass went 3-for-12, including hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning in the series opener for his first career home run… Bass also earned the win in Saturday's second game after striking out six and scattering five hits in 6.0 innings of work in his fifth start of the season… Bass (3-1) now has a 1.08 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 33.1 innings this season… Jake Feckley (4-2) took a tough loss in the series opener after matching a career high with nine strikeouts in 9.2 innings… Feckley now has a 1.86 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 54.2 innings this season… He moved into second place all-time at ASU in strikeouts and now has 154 career strikeouts… Jason Zgardowski (2-2) also took a tough loss on Saturday after striking out five in a complete-game defeat… Zgardowski now has a 2.05 ERA and leads the Rams with 44 strikeouts in 44.0 innings this season.