SAN ANGELO – There was one thought in the Angelo State dugout after the first inning with the Rams leading 3-0 over Tarleton State and Steve Naemark on the mound.

"We were going to win," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "You know as a coach that it's too early in the game to start thinking that way, but we all have so much confidence in him that we feel like we're going to win every game before we even score because he is so good."

Naemark (7-1) continued validating his team's confidence by throwing seven scoreless innings and leading the No. 23-ranked Rams to a 6-0 Lone Star Conference win over the Texans on Friday in the series opener at Foster Field. The Rams (25-10, 14-9 LSC) had solo home runs from J.C. Snyder and Paxton DeLaGarza and extended their winning streak to five games, while the Texans (14-16, 8-12 LSC) were limited four hits and were shutout for the second time this season by ASU.  It was the fourth shutout by the Rams this season and the fourth time TSU has been shut out.

Naemark struck out six and walked only one in his seven innings of work and is now tied for the team and conference lead in wins with Blake Bass (7-1) who will start the first game of a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday for the Rams. Naemark now has 86 strikeouts on the season which is only three shy of tying Michael Gunter (2007) for the single-season strikeout record at Angelo State. A junior left-hander, Naemark also dropped his ERA to 0.65 with his seven scoreless innings and continues to lead the conference in that pitching category.

"When your team gives you more than a one-run lead you start pitching more to contact," Naemark said. "It takes some of the pressure away where you don't have to be so fine with your pitches or try to strike everyone out. With an early lead I like to keep my pitch count low and eat up some innings by forcing them to put the ball in play early and rely on the guys behind me. They hit some balls pretty well against me but we have eight really good defensive players out there that kept making outs for us.

The Rams gave Naemark a 3-0 lead in the first inning after Sam Kohler reached on a one-out infield single and DeLaGarza walked on four pitches. On a double steal, Kohler would advance home on a throwing error and DeLaGarza would score on the next play with Derek Tyner grounding out to second and bringing DeLaGarza in. Snyder stepped up with the Rams leading 2-0 with two outs in the first and crushed his fifth home run of the season to left field.

"We had a really good week of practice and came out ready to go," Brooks said. "Nehwon struck out to start the game, but he battled up there and had a great at-bat. That started things off on a positive tone and the Sam sparked the first of a couple of things he would do during the game with that single. Paxton followed with a walk and then we got those two guys in. At-bats like those guys had are how we want to start every game."

DeLaGarza finished the game 1-for-2 after leading off the eighth inning with his third home run and extended his hitting streak to seven and his reached base streak to 18. It was his first home run at Foster Field after hitting his first two in a road series at Texas A&M-Kingsville. Snyder is now tied with Norkeh for the team lead with five home runs and is hitting .363 on the season. Norkeh led the Rams with a 2-for-4 game and scored his conference-leading 35th run of the game, while Brett David, Tyner and Kohler each went 1-for-4. Kohler extended his hitting streak to six games with his first-inning single, while Tyner has hit safely in five straight games and is now hitting .341 for the season.

The Rams and Texans will resume the series at 4 p.m. with a doubleheader on Saturday at Foster Field with Bass set to start the first game and Bryce Zak (4-4) to start the second. ASU is now 3-1 against Tarleton this season and have won the series openers by a combined score of 24-0 after opening the first series with an 18-0 win on March 7 in Stephenville.

"We just have to come out here tomorrow and continue executing and performing at the level we did tonight," Brooks said. "I feel good about our team right now but tomorrow is another important day for us to go out and prove ourselves."