SAN ANGELO – The top seed in the South Central region, the Angelo State baseball team overcame an early deficit for an emphatic 8-2 victory over second-seeded Colorado Mesa to open the South Central Super Regional in front of a record 3,247 fans at Foster Field at 1^st Community Credit Union Stadium.

The win by the Rams snaps the Mavericks' 20-game winning streak, with it being their first loss since April 1st. 

The crowd is the largest attendance for a super regional in Division II since the playoff format change in the 2019 season; it is also the single-largest crowd for a Division II baseball game since 2017, when 4,022 people attended a Colorado School of Mines versus Colorado Mesa matchup on April 28th of that year.

The Mavericks led off the third inning with a double before advancing to third on a wild pitch and scoring the game's opening run on a groundout.

Tripp Clark led the fourth inning off with a walk before stealing second and advancing to third on a Jordan Williams single up the middle.

Jackson Hardy's squeeze bunt scored Clark to tie the contest; later in the inning, Kelton doubled in a run to give the Rams the lead.

The next batter, Tyler Boggs, singled to right-center field to score a pair of runs, with the second run being scored by Kelton, whose swim move while sliding into home plate saw him escape the reach of Mavericks catcher Declan Wiesner.

Clark would lead off the fifth inning, this time with a single up the middle. Like the previous inning, he would swipe second base, but in this inning, he scored on an Austin Beck triple down the left-field line.

Beck would expand the Rams' lead to 6-2 courtesy of a Jordan Williams sacrifice fly.

Beck led the seventh off with a single; he promptly stole second and scored on a Williams single up the middle to make the lead 7-2.

Jacob Guerrero singled up the middle to score Thomas Cain, making the score 8-2.

Aaron Munson got the start for the Rams and picked up the win, pitching six innings and allowing four hits and two runs while striking out three Mavericks.

Caleb Heuertz pitched in relief of Munson and picked up his third save of the season, allowing one hit and striking out four in three innings of work.

The Rams improve to 51-9 on the season and punch their ticket to the Division II National Championships with one more win; the first pitch for tomorrow is scheduled for 3 p.m.