SAN ANGELO -- The Angelo State baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and Dillon Becker closed the door with two strikeouts and a ground out in the ninth as the Rams earned a 4-1 non-conference win over Lubbock Christian on Saturday in the second game of a three-game set at Foster Field.

The Rams (6-1) have won five straight games and secured a series win over the Chaps (5-3) after also earning a 7-1 win on Friday. ASU and LCU will conclude the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Foster Field where the Rams are now 5-0 at this season.

Becker (1-0) earned the win after striking out three and allowing only one hit in two innings of relief of starter Steve Naemark. Becker, who now has six strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings this season, entered the game in the eighth after the Rams and Chaps had each scored a run in the seventh. The only run charged to Naemark was a solo home run by Niko Velarde in the seventh inning and Becker and Naemark who team up to limit the Chaps to only three hits in the game.

"Steve did a great job and I just wanted to come in and back him up after what he did," Becker said. "I didn't want to let him down. I just wanted to keep shutting them out. I feel like I have good enough stuff to attack the batters and I just went after them."

Naemark established a new career-high with 12 strikeouts and had a no-hitter going through five innings before LCU's Brett Wilhelm led off the sixth with a single to left field. Naemark pinned Wilhelm on base though with two fly-outs and a strikeout before the lone LCU run would score on the home run. He would get a no-decision in the game, but dropped his ERA to 1.06 and has 23 strikeouts through 17 innings of work this season.  

"My mechanics were smooth today and I was able to throw good, low strikes throughout the game," Naemark said. "I'm really excited about performance and how it went today. It was a battle of pitchers today with their guy doing a good job and I never lost confidence that our guys were going to pick me up with some runs. I just knew it was a matter of time and that I needed to keep doing my job."

Angelo State tied the game at 1-1 in the seventh with a Brett David sacrifice fly to right field to plate Cameron Massengill who reached base on a one-out walk and advanced to second on a Derek Tyner single and then to third on a Jarryd Klemm single to left field. With the bases loaded and one out, David slapped  1-1 pitch to right field and brought Massengill in for the first run of the game. The eighth would see the Rams finally get to LCU starter Guillaume Blanchette (1-1) who would turn out to the be the tough-luck loser in the pitcher's duel.

ASU got the eighth inning started with Cody Semler and Nehwon Norkeh each drawing full-count walks before Blanchette exited with Glen Warrick coming to the mound with runners at first and second and no outs. Paxton DeLaGarza loaded the bases with an infield-bunt single and ASU took the lead with Massengill poking the ball down the first-base line and Semler sliding into home to make it 2-1. The Rams added to the lead with Klemm drawing a bases-loaded walk to score Norkeh and then made it 4-1 with a David RBI single to left field to score DeLaGarza before Becker cruised through the ninth to give the Rams their fifth straight win.

"We just kept grinding it out and kept believing," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said.

David went 1-for-3 and led the Rams with two RBI and now has a team-leading three 3-RBI games this season, while J.C. Snyder went 2-for-3 and Derek Tyner went 2-for-4 in the game. Snyder and Tyner both have four multi-hit games this season. DeLaGarza went 1-for-4 with his bunt single and now has hit safely in the first seven games of the season. David and DeLaGarza are each on seven-game hitting streaks for the Rams, while Snyder is on a five-game hitting streak.

The combination of Naemark and Becker produced 15 strikeouts and allowed only three hits in the nine-inning game. LCU has scored two runs in the first two games against the Rams with both runs coming on solo home runs. Despite the loss, Blanchette threw six scoreless innings and finished the game with four strikeouts and limited the Rams to only five hits through his seven innings of work. Warrick would strikeout out two, but would also surrender two runs that would be charged to Blanchette and then David's RBI single that would go on his resume.

Angelo State will turn to Bryce Zak (1-1) on Sunday, while LCU is expected to throw Levi Westerlund (1-1) in the series finale. Zak is coming off a relief-appearance win over Texas A&M International and will be making his first start of the season. The junior from San Angelo is 6-2 in his career with the Rams.