SAN ANGELO, Texas – The Angelo State baseball team returns home to Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium for a vital non-conference rematch with St. Mary's on Tuesday, April 19 at 6 p.m.
The Rams (24-16, 17-9 LSC) will look to rebound from its rough weekend series against Texas A&M – Kingsville as they take on the 23-17 St. Mary's Rattlers. Despite its last loss the Rams currently remain in first place in the Lone Star Conference, as it is in a three-way tie with Texas A&M – Kingsville and West Texas A &M. Upon entering the midweek game, ASU is hitting .295, with a .398 slugging percentage and a .389 on base percentage as a team. The Rams have remained in the national top 10, laying down 44 sacrifice bunts this season. The pitching staff is seventh in the nation with seven shutouts and within the top 25 in Strikeout-to-walk ratio (24th) and strikeouts per nine innings (21st).
STMU will be entering the midweek game looking to recover from a series sweep on the road by No. 6 St. Edward's. The Rattlers dropped its last game against the No.6 Hilltoppers, 13-3. When STMU last faced the Rams in San Antonio, Texas, they took a close 3-1 game, holding ASU to just three hits in nine innings of play. St. Mary's is currently boasting a .320 batting average, with a .493 slugging percentage and a .414 on base percentage.
Jayden O'Dell is expected to start Tuesday's game on the hill for Angelo State. This will be the Tuscola, Texas native's first start of the season. The Rams may also look to Graylon Brown or Joe Hauser to put in time on the mound. Brown (4-4) is currently sitting with 21 career saves, with four coming this season. He is third on the squad with 30 strikeouts and was credited with the only win of last weekend's TAMUK series. Hauser has pitched a total of 31 innings on the season and is boasting a 4.06 ERA. Hauser has amassed 22 strikeouts on the year, which is fourth on the staff.
Leading the offensive attack for Angelo State will be Paxton DeLaGarza and Sam Kohler. DeLaGarza leads the team with a .324 average at the dish and is tied for the team home run lead with five. He has recorded a squad second 45 hits on the season. He has nine doubles, a pair of triples on the season and has drove in 26 RBIs in 2016. Kohler is the only remaining Ram to have started all 40 games and is sitting in third with a .319 average at the plate. The senior has a team leading 46 hits this season and has masterfully executed 9 sac bunts placing him amongst the top 20 in the nation in the category. He has also drawn the most walks (21) on the team.
Tyler Coolbaugh, Steven Pinales and Elias Aguirre have also been hot at the plate for the Rams, as of late. Coolbaugh leads Angelo State with 28 runs batted in thus far. He is a .301 hitter with 34 hits and a .407 slugging percentage. He has a squad second six doubles. Pinales is the team's co-leader in homers with five and has a squad high two triples. He has plated 19 runners and also co-leads the team in stolen bases with nine. Aguirre has currently reached based in 16 straight games and has also stolen nine bases on the season. He is hitting .309 with a .414 on base percentage, and has amassed 11 RBIs on the year.
Senior, Jarryd Klemm, and junior, Jay Gonzales, round out the offensive threats for Angelo State. Klemm is second on ASU with a .332 batting average. He has 28 hits on the season, with five doubles and eight total RBIs. Gonzales checks in with a .315 batting average on the year. He has recorded 28 hits of which six were doubles. He has chalked up 14 RBIs to his name and has scored 13 runs this year.
This game will be broadcasted in high definition on RamTV (Suddenlink channel 106) and on 1260AM KKSA with, Jeremy Bryant on the call.
