MEDIA COVERAGE
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SAN ANGELO – The No. 10-ranked Angelo State baseball team returns to Foster Field this weekend for a three-game, three-day series against Lubbock Christian University.

The series begins at 3 p.m. on Friday with Saturday and Sunday's games starting at 1 p.m. The Chaps (7-1) are ranked No. 16 in the NAIA Preseason Coaches' Poll and are 2-2 all-time against the Rams (7-1). ASU, which has outscored its opponents 64-33 this season, is 2-1 at home this season after winning its series last weekend against Southern Arkansas and a 7-2 road-win over McMurry on Tuesday.

“They are a very good team that has won the national championship recently (NAIA) and are a perennial power,” ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. “It's a really good test for us here early in the season. I think they're going to show us some of the chinks in our armor that we will need to fix. They are a very quality opponent that will give us a strong series.”

The Rams are hitting .353 as a team this season with 68 singles, 19 doubles, five triples and three home runs coming into the series. Angelo State pitching brings in a 3.82 staff ERA with 47 strikeouts, 29 walks and 69 hits allowed through 66 innings of work.

Lee Neumann is coming off a productive week at the plate and enters the series as the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Associations Player of the Week and the Lone Star Conference's Hitter of the Week. Neumann is hitting .484 this season with 10 singles, three triples, one double and one home run. He also has 14 RBI and 14 runs scored for the Rams through the first eight games of the season. He enters the weekend needing only four hits for 100 in his career at Angelo State.

Mike Weatherly (2-0) is the probable starter for Friday with Michael Lange (2-0) to start Saturday and Bryant Rutledge (0-0) to make his first start of the season on Sunday. Weatherly is coming off a 10-strikeout performance against Southern Arkansas which earned him LSC Pitcher of the Week honors, while Lange threw a complete game to close out the series against the Muleriders. Weatherly, who is 7-3 and has nine saves in his career at ASU, has a 0.64 ERA with 15 strikeouts through his first 14.0 innings of work this year, while Lange has a 3.60 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 15 innings. Lange is 11-1 in his career at Angelo State and will be making his 19th appearance on Saturday.

Rutledge, who went 5-4 with 65 strikeouts in 11 starts as a junior in 2011, has made two appearances out of the bullpen this season and as two strikeouts in 2.2 innings.

Reggie Rodriguez joins Neumann as the only Ram to hit safely in the first eight games of the season and leads the team with a .486 batting average. Rodriguez, who is in his first season at ASU, has a team-leading 17 hits with 12 singles, four doubles and a home run. Tyler Coughenour is third on the team with a .387 batting average and leads the team with seven stolen bases. Quaid McKinnon has added 10 hits, while Ryan Greer and Tanner Kalina have eight hits each. Andrew LaCombe is second on the team with 12 RBI and is tied with Neumann and McKinnon with four doubles.

Christian Summers is coming off a three-hit game at McMurry and is hitting .308 in 13 at-bats, while Luke Solomon has six hits and two RBI.
Lubbock Christian comes into the series hitting .375 as a team with 100 total hits in 267 at-bats. The Chaps have 69 singles, 22 doubles, five triples, six home runs and have stolen eight bases. The pitching staff has a 3.63 ERA with 58 strikeouts, 37 walks and an opponent batting average of .238 in 62.0 innings of work.

Christian Vazquez leads the Chaps with a .563 batting average through his first 32 at-bats this season. Vazquez, who is a junior infielder from Puerto Rico, has 18 hits and 12 RBI through LCU's first eight games. Brennyn Smith, a senior infielder from Montgomery, is hitting .500 with 15 hits, including four doubles and two home runs. Jason Fisch has 13 hits this season, with Brandon Wilson and Wigberto Nevarez each having 11 hits. Fisch leads the team with five doubles.

Derek Loera and Kyle Forsyth are both 2-0 on the season with Loera leading the Chaps with 15 strikeouts in only 12 innings of work. Forsyth, a right-handed senior who pitched at Western Texas College before transferring to LCU, has thrown two complete games and has struck out 12 in 14.0 innings this season. Loera is a left-hander who started his collegiate career at Odessa College and is the probable starter for the Chaps on Friday.

The Chaps opened their season with a three-game sweep of Concordia (DIII), an 8-1 win over Texas-Permian Basin and earning a 2-1 series win over Texas College (NAIA) last weekend in Lubbock.

Angelo State is currently ranked No. 10 in the College Baseball Lineup poll and No. 11 by Collegiate Baseball and D2BaseballNews.com.

The Rams come into the series 312-167 all-time and with a 168-62 record at Foster Field.