SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State baseball team swept a doubleheader with Cameron at Foster Field Saturday, clinching a series win in its first Lone Star Conference Series of the year.
The Rams (21-4) outscored the Aggies (18-10) 22-4 on the day, including a 10-4 victory in game one and a 12-0 win in game two of the doubleheader. The win in game one marked the fastest time to 20 wins in program history for Angelo State.
Cameron got on the board first on the day in game one, scoring a pair of runs off ASU starter Ryan Smith in the top of the first. As they've done all season, however, the Rams answered in the bottom half of the inning. Elias Aguirre laid down a bunt single as the second batter in the inning to get the rally started. Mitch Henshaw followed with a single up the middle, moving Aguirre to third. The quick center fielder scored when the next batter, Matt Waller hit a sacrifice fly. ASU retook the lead when the fifth batter of the inning, Steven Pinales, hit a home run over the left field wall to go up 3-2.
The Rams never looked back in the game, leading the rest of the way in the game. In the third inning, ASU push the lead out wider, scoring four runs in a sequence that once again began with Aguirre singling. A Waller triple, a single from Jacob Boston, a walk from Tyler Coolbaugh and a double from Nick Novak brought the runs in during the inning.
Boston was a part of the Rams' next scoring effort in the fifth, hitting his team-leading fifth home run of the season to score himself and Pinales. The Rams 10th and final run of the first game came in the sixth when Henshaw sent his second home run of the series over the right field wall.
Pitcher Dustin Angiel came in to relieve Smith in the fourth, earning his second win of the season in the game, and Kenton Schroter pitched the final two innings of the 10-4 win.
ASU finally held the Aggies scoreless in the first inning in the second game of the doubleheader. The Rams continued to score early themselves, however, as Henshaw hit a two-out single and scored on a double from Waller. Henshaw finished the day 5-for-7 with four runs scored and an RBI, while Waller went 4-for-7 with four RBI and two runs scored.
The Rams scored again in the second and fourth, while starter Jake Mathys kept the Aggies off the board. In his first start of the season, the Minnesota native had the longest outing of his college career. Mathys threw a complete-game shutout against Cameron, going all seven innings while scattering four hits and striking out six batters. The senior hurler is now 4-0 on the year.
Backing Mathys up, the ASU offense broke the game open in the sixth inning. Nick Novak led off the with a single and the Rams ended up batting around in the inning. Six Angelo State players scored in the frame, pushing the run total out to 12 in the game.
Mathys closed out the game, allowing just one single in the seventh and getting a strikeout to finish the game 12-0.
The Rams will go for the sweep of the Aggies at 1 p.m. Sunday at Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium.
