SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State baseball team split a pair of games Friday afternoon, losing to West Texas A&M but defeating Cameron in an elimination game to advance to the Lone Star Conference tournament final on Saturday.
The Rams (41-12) started the day in the winner's bracket after winning on Thursday, but dropped the first game of the day 5-3 to the Buffs (34-16) for their first loss of the tournament.
Matt Shannon started the game on the mound for ASU and was dominant to start, keeping the Buffs off the board for the first five innings of play. The Rams, playing as the visiting team at Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium, got him a lead in the top half of the fourth.
Jacob Boston led off the inning with a single and Steven Pinales followed with a double of his own to put two on without an out. Jay Gonzales followed with an infield single to score Boston for the first run of the game. Pinales came in to score one batter later when Nate Ruane grounded out to the second basemen.
West Texas A&M got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, with back-to-back doubles to score a run. Shannon then induced a double play to get out of the inning with no further damage.
In the seventh, however, the Buffs jumped out in front. Another double from Nick Canas scored a pair of runs that put WT on top and West Texas A&M added two more runs in the innings to take a 5-2 lead.
The Rams responded with a run in the top of the eighth, but were unable to get anything else going offensively, falling 5-3 in their first game of the day.
The loss dropped ASU into the loser's bracket. After Cameron defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville in the second game of the day to keep their tournament chances alive, the Rams faced the Aggies in the night game in another elimination game.
In their second game of the day, the Rams exploded offensively against Cameron. ASU was the away team again, but the first three batters reached in the top of the first. Boston brought home the first runs of the game, singling home two runs. Boston then got caught up in a run down, but extended it long enough to allow Mitch Henshaw to score from third.
ASU scored again in the third inning as Tyler Coolbaugh led off the inning with a single and Mitch Henshaw reached with a hit-by-pitch. The hit-by-pitch was the second of four Henshaw reached on in the game, tying the ASU single-game record set by Travis Lites in 2009.
Boston followed with a another RBI hit, this time a double to right center, to score Coolbaugh. One batter later, Jay Gonzales came to the plate and blasted a three-run home run over the wall in left center. It is the senior's third homer of the season.
The Rams got one more run on a sacrifice fly from Elias Aguirre in the sixth inning and also added a pair of runs in the eighth on a single from Coolbaugh.
Cameron got their only three runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Jhonatan Del Rosario and Jared Velasco closed the door out of the bullpen.
The Rams will now face West Texas A&M again at 1 p.m. on championship Saturday. ASU will need to top WT in the first game and force a second game. If the Rams when twice, they will earn their first LSC Tournament Championship since 2012.
The first game as well as the second game if it is played can be heard locally on 1260 KKSA.
