PORTALES, New Mexico - The Angelo State baseball team secured its first series sweep of the season, defeating Eastern New Mexico 4-2 on Sunday.
The Rams (13-5) got another strong outing from starting pitcher Carson Childers in the win, as the Round Rock native pitched six innings with a career-high nine strikeouts while allowing just two hits and one run.
"Carson threw well again today and the Rholl really came in and shut the door," Angelo State Head Baseball Coach Kevin Brooks said. "It was a tough day for both teams at the plate, but we strung together a couple of hits and found a way to win, so I was proud of that."
The lone run Childers gave up was the first of the day for either team, marking the first time that ASU did not score first in the weekend series.
After Childers worked a scoreless first three innings, ENMU finally broke through in the fourth inning. The Greyhounds put a runner on with one out and got him into scoring position on a groundout. Another single to right field plated the run and gave ENMU an early lead.
The lead was short-lived, however, as ASU immediately got the run back in the top of the fifth inning.
First basemen Andrew Morales sparked the rally with a leadoff single, moving into scoring position on a wild pitch. A flyout from Mitch Henshaw got Morales to third, and the first basemen scored on a single from catcher Alex Salcido to tie the game back up.
Morales had the only multi-hit performance of the day for the Rams, going 2-4 with a double and a pair of runs driven in.
After a shutdown inning from Childers in the bottom of the fifth, ASU gave him the lead in the sixth inning.
Jonathan Soberanes led off the inning with his team-leading 18th walk of the season, stole second, and then advanced to third on a throwing error from the Greyhound catcher. A groundout from Michael Urquidi scored Soberanes, but the Rams scoring did not end there.
Nicholas Novak followed with a single and advanced to third on the exact same sequence as Soberanes with a stolen base and an error. Bradley Mathiowetz then walked, and Morales drove both in with a double to left center.
Childers put up another shutdown inning in the bottom of the sixth, securing the win to move to 2-0 on the season.
He was replaced on the mound by Logan Voth, who struck out a pair of batters before leaving for reliever Kellen Rholl.
Rholl closed out the win, giving up one run in the ninth, but striking out two greyhounds. The Minnesota native earned his LSC-leading fifth save of the season for the shutdown performance.
Angelo State will return home next to take on UT Permian Basin in a four-game series March 9-11 at Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium.
