SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State baseball team opened the series against Southeaster Oklahoma State with a win Friday afternoon, holding the Savage Storm to just two hits in the 4-2 victory.
The Rams (3-1) scored first for the fourth straight game to open the season, scoring in the second while holding the Savage Storm (1-3) scoreless for the first three innings and seven of the nine innings overall.
Matt Shannon started the game for ASU, striking out two in the first inning and six overall in the game. The junior out of Pleasanton pitched 6 2/3, giving up just four hits in his time on the mound and allowing two runs.
Steven Pinales gave Shannon the first run support of day in the second inning when he walked to get on base. The right-fielder ended the day with just an 0-for-1 line, walking his first three times at the plate. Pinales came around to score on the next at-bat, as catcher Matt Waller doubled to the alley in right-center field. Waller then stole third, and after Jonathan Soberanes got to first on yet another walk, the pair worked a double steal that scored Waller from third.
The Savage Storm got one run back in the top of the fourth, when Hunter Harrison hit a home run over the right field wall. The Rams responded, however, by scoring another pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Waller legged out an infield single to the third basemen and two batters later Clay Wegner walked to bring up the top of the Rams' order again. Third basemen Jacob Boston brought the pair home with a triple over the centerfielder's head. The runs would be the last two of the day for ASU.
SEOSU got one more run in the top of the fifth when Shannon walked the first two batters of the inning, but the junior ended the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Shannon then pitched another shutout inning in the sixth and got two outs in the seventh before ceding the mound duties to Joe Hauser.
Hauser, in his second appearance of the season, got a big third out in the seventh with the bases loaded, and then proceeded to allow just one baserunner in the final two innings of the game.
ASU got one baserunner in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but were unable to bring any more runs across, ending the game still on top 4-2.
The Rams will be back at home for a doubleheader to close out the three-game series with the Savage Storm, with first pitch at 1 p.m. Saturday at Foster Field at First Community Credit Union Stadium.
