Baseball | 2/7/2017 11:07:00 AM
SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State baseball team will be back home at Foster Field at First Community Credit Union Stadium this weekend, taking on Southeastern Oklahoma State in a three-game series.
The Rams (2-1) will start game one with the Savage Storm (1-2) at 5 p.m. Friday before playing a double header Saturday with games at 1 and 3 p.m.
ASU opened the season last weekend with a series win over the visiting Regis Rangers, taking games two and three in the series by scores of 5-3 and 11-9. The opening game was the only loss, as the Rams dropped the game 5-1.
"From what I saw this weekend, we can be good," ASU head baseball coach Kevin Brooks said. "The pieces are in place and I saw some good things, but we still have a lot of work to do."
Outfielder Steven Pinales led the way at the plate for the Rams in the first three games, getting five hits in ten at-bats, including a triple and a double. The senior is tied for first on the team in both slugging percentage (.800) and total bases (8). The other Ram with as many total bases is third basemen Jacob Boston, who got half of his bases in one swing in game three with a shot over the left field wall. The Arizona native is hitting .333 in the leadoff spot for ASU.
Elias Aguirre, Matt Waller and Jonathan Soberanes all also played in the first three games and batted over .300 to open the season. Waller got three singles on the weekend while starting every game behind the plate, and the senior captain threw out the only base-stealer he saw in the series. Aguirre scored the most runs of any Ram in the series at three, and got on base half of the times he came up to the plate. Soberanes only started in the final game of the series, but made the most of his opportunities with three hits in five at-bats, including a double. The JUCO transfer also tied for the team lead with three.
ASU saw several solid performances on the mound as well in the opening games of the 2017 season, highlighted by just one hit allowed in four shutout innings of relief for Joe Hauser. The Georgetown native came in to start the sixth inning in game two of the series and allowed just one baserunner, earning the win when the Rams came back in the ninth.
Kenton Schroter, Matt Shannon and Shane Browning all had strong performances as starters. Schroter had the lowest ERA of the three, giving up just two runs in 4 2/3 innings on Sunday, while Browning and Shannon both gave up three runs in their five innings pitcher.
Southeastern Oklahoma State enters the series after taking one of three games against Texas A&M International last weekend. Last season, the team finished 29-25 overall and in an early season matchup with the Rams in Oklahoma, took one of three games.
The Savage Storm coached by Mike Metheny, who has been at the school since 1981. The seasoned coach has a career record of 1,309-650-2, and is just six wins away from becoming the winningest coach in Division II baseball history. He is currently 21st all-time across all divisions.
"I don't know a whole lot about Southeastern except that they played Texas A&M International last weekend," Brooks said. "They will be well-coached for sure though, which always makes teams tough to beat. I know he plans on getting closer to that all-time record, but we plan on not letting him."
