SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State baseball team will take its longest road trip of the season so far this weekend as it travels to Portales, New Mexico for a four-game series with Eastern New Mexico April 21-23.
The Rams (30-8, 8-3 LSC) will open the series with the Greyhounds (27-15, 5-9 LSC) at 8 p.m. CST Friday night, followed by a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. CST on Saturday and the series finale at 2 p.m. CST on Sunday.
ASU and ENMU have faced off already once this season in a nonconference series March 3-5 in San Angelo that saw the Rams take three games off the Greyhounds. Following the series win, ASU pitcher Matt Shannon was named LSC Pitcher of the Week. Shannon earned the award again this week after his performance against Texas A&M International this past Friday.
Shannon went the full seven innings, marking his fifth straight start of seven or more innings, and scattered just three hits in that time. The junior did not walk a batter all day and held the Dustdevils to just a .136 batting average while striking out four in the appearance. For the season, Shannon is 6-2 with an ERA of just 2.80. He leads the Rams in both innings pitched with 64 and a third as well as strikeouts with 60.
Several other pitchers have helped lead the Rams this season, including Ryan Smith Blake Barr, Jake Mathys, Joe Hauser and Shane Browning. Smith is the ASU wins leader this year with an 8-0 record and a ERA of just 3.72. Barr has moved into the starting role for the Rams recently and earned his first win of the year on Tuesday when ASU topped St. Mary's 10-1. Browning has been a regular ASU starter as well, leading the Rams in strikeouts per nine innings.
Mathys has come out of the bullpen for the majority of the season, ranking first in the conference in strikeout to walk ratio. Hauser has been the Ram closer for the year, racking up a conference-leading 10 saves with an ERA of just 1.93 in his team-leading 18 appearances this year.
Other pitchers to contribute to the Rams this season have been Dustin Angiel, Jhonatan Del Rosario, and Kenton Schroter.
Angelo State pitching has been helped out, however, by an offense that is one of the best in the nation. ASU averages 7.7 runs per game and has the second highest team on-base percentage in the nation at .444 as well as the fourth highest team batting average.
The Rams also rank in the top 25 nationally in triples, stolen bases per game, slugging percentage and sacrifice flies.
Junior Jacob Boston leads the offense with a .397 batting average. Boston has the most home runs on the team with seven and also leads the squad in on-base percentage, reaching base at a .497 clip.
Elias Aguirre and Matt Waller are second and third on the team inning batting average at .385 and .384, respectively. Aguirre leads the team in stolen bases with 13, while Waller has collected a team leading 79 total bases on the season.
Both Nick Novak and Jonathan Soberanes have made strong contributions in their first season with the Rams. Novak, a freshman, is batting .373 on the year and has swiped eight bags in 27 games as well. Soberanes has his batting average .347 and leads the team with 28 walks for an on-base percentage of .374.
Three other Ram regulars are hitting above the .300 mark in Tyler Coolbaugh, Mitch Henshaw and Steven Pinales. Coolbaugh is batting .343 and is second on the team in doubles with nine this year, while Henshaw is batting just behind him with a .342 average and a team-second five home runs. Pinales also has four home runs on the season and leads the LSC with six triples this year.
Other Rams who have helped out the offense this season include Michael Urquidi, Jay Gonzales, Zach Fleet and Nate Ruane. Ruane is batting .320 in 25 at-bats this year, and Fleet has done even better with a .500 average in his 20 at-bats this year. Urquidi is batting .278 with a pair of home runs and Gonzales has hit one four-bagger as well.
Eastern New Mexico comes into the weekend matchup after four straight losses last weekend to the conference leader Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Greyhounds are led by Alex DeLaCruz, who is hitting .440 on the season and leading the Lone Star Conference both in total hits and runs scored.
All four games of the series can be heard locally on 1260 KKSA with Jeremy Bryant on the call.
