Pitching Dominates as Angelo State Comes Up Short in Extras

The Angelo State Rams baseball team kicked off a 13 game home stand with a 10-inning affair against the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas Friday night.  In a game dominated by pitching, the Rams fell just short, losing 4-2.

Senior Jake Feckley led the way for the Rams giving up three runs on six hits over 9 2/3 innings, surrendering just two walks while tying his career high of nine strikeouts.

Angelo State spent most of the contest down 1-0, with an unearned run coming in the top of the third inning on a throwing error by catcher David Goggin. Zeroes piled up frame after frame as Feckley and Texas A&M University Kingsville pitcher Dallas Ponder dueled back and forth.

The Rams caught their break in the bottom of the eighth inning, though, with one swing of the bat.

Junior outfielder Blake Bass, who went 2-4 and accounted for half of the Rams offensive production, picked the right time for his first home run of the season, sending a 2-2 offering from Ponder deep into the San Angelo night air and over the left-center field wall to tie the game at one apiece.

“I haven’t played in a while. I came in not trying to do too much and I got two strikes [on me], so I was just trying to put the ball in play, give myself a chance,” Bass said. “But it wouldn’t have been tied if Feckley didn’t keep us in the game, so that’s a huge part that he did that.”

The run gave the Rams the chance to head to extra innings, but the Javelinas plated their only earned runs of the game when they mattered most, scoring 3 runs in the top of the tenth inning.

Catcher Clint Williams doubled to left field to start the rally, and pinch-hitter Miles Holcomb added to it by singling home Williams to put the Javelinas up 2-1.

After inducing the second out of the inning, Feckley was replaced by pitcher Mason Leavitt, who walked the only batter he faced before giving way to pitcher Graylon Brown. The two combined to give up two runs, one charged to Feckley and the other to Leavitt, on two hits and one walked batter.

The Rams, however, did not go quietly.

With two outs, second baseman Hunter Choate scored on a hard single to right field by third baseman Christian Summers, after being hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Left fielder Reggie Rodriguez added another single, sending Summers to third. Representing the possible winning run of the game, center fielder Nehwon Norkeh came to bat only to ground out softly to end the game-winning rally and the game for the Rams.

“We fought hard,” Bass reflected after the tough loss. “We pitched very well and kept ourselves in the game until the end and that’s good. We had to fight until the last inning too, which is key. That will help us in the long run.”

The Rams, who moved to 16-10 on the season following the loss, will try to rebound from two extra-inning losses in a row and an overall five game losing streak when they play a pair of seven inning games against the Javelinas Saturday afternoon and evening.

The first game is scheduled for a 1 pm first pitch at Foster Field with the second game expected to begin at 4 pm.