CANYON – Angelo State pitcher Bryce Zak struck out 10 and allowed only one run in six innings of work while Nehwon Norkeh, Paxton DeLaGarza and David Goggin each homered to help lead the Rams to a 9-7 Lone Star Conference win over West Texas A&M on Saturday in the series finale at Wilder Park.

The Rams (28-14, 16-13 LSC) dropped the series 1-2 after falling 2-1 on Friday in the opener and 3-2 in Saturday's first game against the Buffs (28-15, 18-11 LSC). WT won the season series 4-3 over the Rams after the two teams split a four-game series at Foster Field in mid-March.

"Getting this win in the finale was huge for us," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "Those first two losses were tough and we had to get going again. It was good to see our offense show up and Bryce gave us a big-time performance. He's pitched great all season and we finally gave him some runs."

Zak (5-5) earned the win for the Rams and now has 103 strikeouts through 101 innings in his career after striking out 10 and allowing only four hits. Zak threw 115 pitches and walked only three in the win which avoided a sweep against WT. Zak had 11 strikeouts earlier this season in a win over Regis for his career-best and his only other double-digit strikeout performance of his career.

Norkeh went 3-for-5 for the Rams, including leading off the game with a home run to left-center field. It was his third leadoff home run of the year and his eighth of the season after he also had a homer in the first game on Saturday. Paxton DeLaGarza added to ASU's lead with a first-inning home run of his own to give the Rams a 2-0 lead and ASU was up 6-0 after a three-run third inning where Cameron Massengill had an RBI single to center field, Goggin grounded out to first but scored Brett David on the play and then Massengill came in on a wild pitch. The lead expanded to 9-1 in the sixth with ASU scoring three more runs in the sixth with Goggin leading off the inning with the first home run of his career and then DeLaGarza driving in a run on a groundout and then J.C. Snyder hitting a run-scoring triple down the right-field line to score Norkeh.

ASU led 9-1 going to the bottom of the eighth before WT scored six runs on six hits. After losing a last-inning lead in Saturday's opener, Graylon Brown earned his ninth save of the season by getting a double-play ball after a leadoff single and then striking out the final batter.

Norkeh and DeLaGarza led the Rams by both going 3-for-5 in the game, while Cody Semler went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. DeLaGarza finished the series hitting .462 by going 6-for-13 with two RBI and Norkeh went 5-for-11 with two home runs, a double and three RBI. Semler and David each had four hits in the three-game set.

The Rams hit five home runs in the series at Wilder Park and have now hit 31 home runs this season. ASU opponents, on the other hand, have hit only four home runs with seven games remaining in the regular season.

Angelo State will play its final non-conference game of the season at 6 p.m. on Monday when it host McMurry at Foster Field before closing out the regular season with home series against Texas A&M-Kingsville and Eastern New Mexico. ASU is 18-4 at home this season and finished the regular season with a 10-10 road record after dropping two of three in Canyon. 

GAME TWO RECAP