SAN ANGELO – After three walk-off wins to start the series by the Angelo State baseball team, Eastern New Mexico made a rally of its own to take a 7-5 Lone Star Conference victory over the Rams in the series finale on Sunday at Foster Field.

ASU (20-13, 10-10 LSC) led 5-3 going into the eighth inning, but the Greyhounds (16-16, 6-14 LSC) would score two runs in the eighth to tie the game and then two more in the ninth to take the win. The Rams won the series 3-1 and are now 11-5 at home and in third place in the conference standings through the first half of LSC play.

"Our guys are down because we feel like we should have won this game and swept the series, but I think this weekend is a positive for us," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "We need to build on it and improve in the areas of the game that got us today. We have to finish games like this. I think we competed throughout the weekend, but we had a lull in the middle innings today and we have to figure out a way to stay competitive when we have the lead."

Dillon Becker did not receive a decision after giving the Rams 8.0 innings of work in his fifth start of the season. Becker struck out six and scattered 11 hits over the course of the game before exiting with the game tied at 5-5.

"He did a good job throughout the game getting out of some jams," said Brooks of Becker. "He made some big pitches when he had to. He did his job by not giving them a big inning and keeping us in the game."

The Greyhounds broke the tie game by piecing together two one-out hits and loading the bases with a hit-by-pitch on ASU reliever Erik Monson in the ninth. Monson would walk designated hitter Colton Sims on five pitches to bring home the go-ahead run and a balk on reliever Miles Gully gave ENMU its second run before a groundout ended the top of the inning. Christian Summers reached base on a one-out single to left field, but a Derek Tyner lineout to second base turned into a double play with Summers being thrown out at first.

Tyner, Tyler Coughenour and JP Zapata led the Rams at the plate with two-hit games on Sunday, while Summers went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a stolen base. Zapata had an infield single and hit his first triple of the season. ASU and ENMU exchanged first-inning runs before the Rams took a 4-1 lead with three runs in the second inning on three hits and an error. Zapata led off the inning with his infield single to second base and scored on a Coughenour RBI single to right field. The Rams would tack on another run when Reggie Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch after reaching on a walk and its third run with Summers delivering a sacrifice fly to right field.

The Rams would go scoreless in the next four innings before Cameron Massengill hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Summers who led off the seventh inning with a walk. ASU, which was out-hit 13-8 in the game, is now 8-2 in games where it leads after seven innings.

ASU, which is in third place in the LSC standings behind West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Kingsville, will start the second half of conference play next weekend against Cameron back at Foster Field. The Rams are even through the first 20 games of league play and five games back of the Buffs.

"I've seen our pitching is good enough to keep us in every game, but the biggest thing we have to improve on is limiting our mistakes and not giving up runs," Brooks said. "We have to get better offensively and find ways to score runs. There are some injuries that are going to force us to change how we approach situations and find ways to score more runs."
 
SERIES NOTES: Angelo State took the series 3-1 after earning three walk-off wins to start the series before falling on Sunday… The Rams, who won the third game 9-8 in 12 innings, outscored ENMU 25-24 in the series… ASU is now 10-6 in one-run games, but 1-4 in two-run contests... Summers led ASU throughout the series at the plate, finishing the weekend 7-for-15 (.467) with seven hits and four RBI… He is now hitting .274 and is tied with David Goggin for the team lead with 21 RBI this season… Summers also pitched 3.0 innings in Saturday's second game and established a career-high with seven strikeouts… JP Zapata went 3-for-7 and started the final two games… Brett David went 4-for-10, including hitting a three-run home run in the 9th inning on Saturday to tie the game… David led the Rams with five RBI in the four-game series and drove in the game-winning run in the second game of the series… Cameron Massengill went 5-for-13 with two doubles and two RBI… Massengill caught each of the four games against ENMU and did not commit an error… Derek Tyner went 6-for-18 and delivered the game-winning hit in the 12-inning win with a two-run single to center field… Tyner now leads the Rams with a .322 average and 37 hits this season… Tyler Coughenour went 5-for-15 and scored three runs, while Reggie Rodriguez finished the weekend with four RBI on two hits… Rodriguez hit his first home run this season with a three-run shot in the sixth inning in Saturday's second game… Jason Zgardowski improved to 3-2 on the season after striking out a career-high 11 in 7.0 innings where he limited ENMU to four hits and walked only two… Zgardowski now has a 1.94 ERA and 55 strikeouts through 51.0 innings this season… Erik Monson made two relief appearances and earned the win on Saturday night before taking the loss on Sunday… Graylon Brown (3-2) earned the win on Friday night… Brown had three strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work in two appearances.