SAN ANGELO – The No. 5-ranked Angelo State baseball team took a 2-1 series lead over West Texas A&M after splitting a Lone Star Conference doubleheader against the Buffs on Saturday at Foster Field.
 
The Rams (18-3, 8-2 LSC) opened the day with a 6-5 extra-inning loss before Bryce Zak and Dillon Becker combined for a 2-0 shutout-win in the third game of the series. ASU is now 15-1 at home this season going into a 1 p.m. series finale on Sunday against the Buffs (13-10, 5-5 LSC). A win on Sunday would give the Rams their sixth straight series win to start the season. It will be the final home game for the next two weeks with ASU travelling to play at Texas A&M-Kingsville next weekend and to Eastern New Mexico in two weeks.

"It was a tough day for both offenses with the wind blowing in and I thought our pitchers and defense did a good job throughout the games," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "Other than two errors in one inning in the first game, I thought we played really clean baseball. We're going to have to do a better job offensively tomorrow at getting guys on and getting them in though. I think you need to win every series you play at home to keep pace atop the conference standings so tomorrow's game is important for us to take care of."
 
GAME THREE (ASU 2, WT 0)
Zak (4-2) allowed only four hits and did not walk a batter in 5 2/3 innings of work in his fourth win of the season, while Becker earned his team-leading fifth save of the year after striking out four and allowing only one hit in 1 1/3 innings of work behind a defense which did not commit an error in the seven-inning game.
 
Derek Tyner drove in the first run of the game with an RBI ground out to shortstop to bring in Paxton DeLaGarza who had led off the fourth inning and move to third on a Cameron Massengill sacrifice bunt. The Rams would tack on an insurance run in the fifth when Cody Semler scored on an error by the WT center fielder on a flyout off the bat of Sam Kohler after Semler had reached on a single to right field.
 
ASU was limited to four hits in the game, but were on point with its pitching and defense. Zak and Becker combined to strand six Buffs on base during the game and walked only one. The ASU defense, which had two uncharacteristic errors in the first game of the day, responded by not committing an error in the second game and leading the team to its third shutout of the season.
 
Tyner drove in the only run of the game, while DeLaGarza, J.C. Snyder, Brett David and Semler each had hits for the Rams. DeLaGarza had the only extra-base hit of the game for the Rams with the fourth-inning double.
 
 
GAME TWO  (WT 6, ASU 5)
 
ASU evened its extra-inning record at 1-1 with the 6-5 loss in the second game of the series to start its doubleheader on Saturday against West Texas A&M. The Buffs scored three runs in the top of the eighth and then stranded two Rams on base after two runs had already scored to even the series going into the nightcap. The loss snapped ASU's 14-game winning streak at home to start the season.
 
Graylon Brown (2-1) received the loss after seeing three unearned runs score in the eighth inning and after he recorded three strikeouts and allowed only two hits in three innings of work. Blake Bass saw his five-game winning streak end with a no-decision where he struck out nine and walked only one in five innings.
 
Down 6-3 going to the bottom of the eighth inning, Massengill led off the inning with a single and moved to second when Tyner reached on an error by WT's second baseman. A double by Snyder scored Massengill for the first run of the inning and then a sacrifice fly by David scored Tyner who tagged from third. With one out and one on, Hunter Spear grounded out before Semler walked to put two runners on. The game was ended with a Sam Kohler groundout to second base.
 
Angelo State scored its first three runs in the fourth inning with Massengill pulling a single through the left-side of the infield to score Norkeh and then David hitting a two-RBI single to score Massengill and DeLaGarza.
 
Massengill led the Rams in the game by going 3-for-4 with an RBI, while David had three RBI one hit. ASU finished the game with eight hits and two errors, while WT had 12 hits and four errors.  

Kellen Rholl is scheduled to make his second start of the season in the 1 p.m. series finale against the Buffs.