DURANT, Oklahoma – The Angelo State baseball team took the three game series with Southeastern Oklahoma State, winning its final game, 7-5, on Saturday afternoon.
With today's win, the Rams moved to 5-1 on the season and starting pitcher Joey Wise earned his first win of the season. The offense tallied seven runs off of nine hits with one home run and a pair of doubles. The Savage Storm falls to 4-5 on the year with the loss.
"We came out of the gate firing on all cylinders and it proved to be pretty crucial," said head ASU baseball coach Kevin Brooks. "I thought we did a good job battling after that. Joey Wise did a good job and got out of some jams. Then Graylon [Brown] came in and was lights out, not allowing any runs. Our defense was solid as it has been all year and Nathan Ruane came up with about four or five plays. We faced a lot of adversity with being on the road and I though we handled it well, which was good."
Angelo State produced a monster first inning that carried them through the game. Paxton DeLaGarza cranked a three run homer to left center off of his first pitch to give ASU a 3-0 lead right out of the gate. Then with a man on first and one out, David Goggin stroked a double to short right field. Nathan Ruane followed with a walk and the bases were juiced for the second time in the inning. After a strike out put a second out on the board for the Rams, catcher Matt Waller hit a short grounder that advance the runs a single base and pushed Steven Pinales across to make the game 4-0 and return ASU to the top of its order. Then with a 1-0 count, leadoff man, Christian Abilla, lined a bases clearing double to left center that would cap off ASU's scoring with seven runs in the first inning. This would be the last time the Rams would score for the game. Despite its best efforts the Savage Storm could only muster up five runs of its own throughout the rest of the game.
DeLaGarza's three run, home run gives him both the RBI (11) and home run (2) lead for the team. He was 3-for -4 on the day and finished the series with six total hits, two home runs and seven RBIs. Abilla also produce top numbers at the plate today for the team, hitting 2-for-5 with one double and three RBIs.
Wise threw a total of five innings, striking out three and giving up five runs off of six hits. Entering the game for four innings of relief work, Graylon Brown was awarded his first save of the season. He gave up no runs, striking out one and allowing four hits. His overall ERA remains 0.00.
The Rams continue its month long road trip with a stop in Lubbock, Texas to take on Lubbock Christian for a three game series. The first game of the weekend long series will be on Friday, February 19 with a first pitch time of 4 p.m.
