BOX SCORE: Angelo State 6, Tarleton State 3

SAN ANGELO – Dillon Becker earned his first win as a starter, Graylon Brown recorded his fourth save and Nehwon Norkeh hit a two-run home run to lift the No. 11-ranked Angelo State baseball team to a 6-3 Lone Star Conference victory over No. 25 Tarleton State in the series finale on Sunday at Foster Field.

ASU (16-5, 6-2 LSC) took the series 3-1 and improved to 7-1 at home this season with the win, while the Texans (13-7, 4-4) dropped their first series of the season. The Rams finished the game with nine hits from eight different players, while Becker and Brown teamed up for 10 strikeouts and no walks on the mound.

"It was a huge series for us and today was a really important win to get three out of four," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "I wish we could have gotten all four, but getting a sweep is never easy especially against a team of the quality of Tarleton State. It was a credit to our guys to come out here the past three days ready to compete and a lot of energy and hustle."

The Rams will travel to Canyon next weekend for a four-game series against West Texas A&M (16-4, 6-2 LSC). WT and ASU are the top two teams in the LSC conference through the first two weekends. The Buffs fell in 11 innings on Sunday to Eastern New Mexico after taking the first three games of the series.

Hunter Choate got the Rams on the scoreboard in the first inning with a one-out single to right field to score Tyler Coughenour who led the game off by being hit by a pitch and Nehwon Norkeh who walked. Choate extended his hitting streak to 11 games with the single and gave ASU a 2-1 lead to respond to the Texans getting a first-inning run. The Rams led 3-1 when Choate scored on an error by the TSU right fielder following a Brett David single.

TSU tied the game with two runs in the third and the score was at 3-3 going into the bottom of the fourth. ASU took a 4-3 lead off a Cameron Massengill sacrifice fly to center field in the fourth and took the advantage to the seventh. Coughenour turned a single into a double with hustle on a hit to left field and brought up Norkeh who was 0-for-2 as he stepped to the plate. On a full-count pitch, Norkeh sent the ball to the warning track and into the glove of Tarleton State's left fielder who had raced it down. At full momentum, TSU's Dalton Weeks had the ball bounce over the fence as he flipped into the ASU bullpen. The home run was Norkeh's second of the season and gave the Rams their final score of 6-3.

Becker (3-2) had career-high seven strikeouts and scattered seven hits in 5.1 innings, giving up three runs before exiting with a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning. Becker, who was making his second start and ninth appearance, now has 16 strikeouts in 16.1 innings of work.

"He's going to keep getting better out there on the mound for us," Brooks said. "He got in some jams that he had the stuff to get out of today. He's still developing and maturing as a pitcher. I think this is just the surface for him."

Brown entered the game in the sixth inning with one out and a runner on second base. Brown got a fly out from the first batter he faced, walked the second and then stranded the two Texans with a fly out to Tyler Coughenour at second base. His fourth save of the season and fifth of his career went 3.1 innings where he had three strikeouts, allowed only two hits and didn't walk a batter.

"You go out there and trust him," said Brooks of Brown. "He's a tremendous competitor and was able to get past some early command problems. We needed him today to finish it off. He was extended a little, but that's what college baseball closers have to do sometimes."

Coughenour and Norkeh each scored two runs in the game, while David Goggin, Christian Summers and Reggie Rodriguez each singled. TSU starter Kyle Gottardy (1-1) took his first loss of the season after going 3.0 innings with one strikeout, three walks and only two hits allowed. Rustin Thomas and Jared Musgrove led the Texans with two hits in the game.
 
SERIES NOTES
Hunter Choate led the Rams with eight hits and finished the series against the Texans with four RBI… Choate went 8-for-16 (.500) over the four-game series, including hitting his first career home run in the series opener on Friday… Reggie Rodriguez went 5-for-13 in the series with two multi-hit games… Derek Tyner and David Goggin each went 4-for-14 in the series… Christian Summers, Nehwon Norkeh and Cameron Massengill each had three hits in the series… Massengill had two-game winning hits in the series and drove in the winning run on Sunday with his sacrifice fly... He gave the Rams the lead in Friday's opener with a single to right field before executing a squeeze bunt in Saturday's second game to give ASU a 1-0 win in nine-innings… Graylon Brown recorded a win and a save in the series after taking the win on Friday with three strikeouts and no runs allowed in 2.1 innings of relief… Brown followed the win with 3.2 innings on Sunday for the save and now has made a team-leading 10 appearances this season and has 29 in his two-year career… Dillon Becker recorded his first career win as a starter and had a career-high seven strikeouts on Sunday… Jason Zgardowski did not receive a decision in Saturday's first game, but turned in a strong start by going 7.0 innings with five strikeouts and allowed only one run… Zgardowski (2-0) has recorded 24 strikeouts in his last three starts and leads the team with 35 strikeouts in 30.1 innings… Blake Bass recorded his second straight complete-game win after going 9.0 innings with six strikeouts in Saturday's second game… Bass (2-0) now has a 0.42 ERA and 18 strikeouts through 21.2 innings of work this season.

"We finally got some walks and scoring without hits," Brooks said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of situational hitting to put pressure on them and found a way to win. We did what we needed to do."