SAN ANGELO – Derek Tyner and Brett David each hit home runs and Matt Shannon, Dillon Becker and Graylon Brown combined to strike out 11 to help lead Angelo State to a 4-3 non-conference win over No. 13-ranked St. Mary's on Tuesday at Foster Field.

The Rams (21-10) improved to 11-1 in non-conference play and are now 16-2 at home after the win over the Rattlers (22-7). ASU returns to Lone Star Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Cameron (14-16, 8-11 LSC) in Lawton, Oklahoma to start the second half of conference play after handing St. Mary's a loss and bouncing back from dropping a series last weekend at Eastern New Mexico.

"It was big for us to come out here tonight and get a win," ASU head coach Kevin Brooks said. "I feel like our guys understand that we are a good team and that we are going to start running off wins again. It was important for us to come out and get it going early and win this game against a really good St. Mary's program. We need to carry it over to this weekend and go into Cameron with the confidence that we have played with for most of the season."

Shannon (2-1) earned the win after striking out three and scattering six hits in his second start of the season and his first start at home. A redshirt freshman from Pleasanton, Shannon allowed only two runs and stranded four Rattlers in five innings of work.

"Matt was awesome for us tonight," Brooks said. "I was worried about him maybe being a little too geared up for this game, but he wasn't. He kept his emotions under control throughout his time on the mound and really gave us a strong start. He was in control and that's what we're going to need from him the rest of the season. He's a really important of our pitching staff and if he keeps throwing like that we're going to be a really tough team to beat."

ASU, which had struggled to score last weekend in Portales, struck first with two runs in the first inning before an out was even made. Nehwon Norkeh led the game off by being hit by a pitch on a 1-1 count and scored when Tyner hit a home run which cleared the left-field fence right down the foul line.

"It was important to get that positive momentum going right away after last weekend," Brooks said. "Derek placed it perfectly for the home run after Nehwon got hit. We were up 2-0 before you could even blink an eye. It relaxed everyone and we just went out and played our game from there."

On a 3-1 pitch to lead off the second inning, David made it 3-0 with a shot over the left-center field fence for his fourth home run of the season and the ninth home run of his career. David, a senior from El Paso, now leads the Rams with 28 RBI this season with matches his RBI total from all of last season. He has 67 RBI in his four-year career at ASU going into this weekend at Cameron. The Rams scored their fourth and final run of the game in the fourth inning with Norkeh driving in Sam Kohler with an RBI single to left field.

St. Mary's made it a game though by scoring two runs in the fifth off Shannon on three hits and made it a one-run game when Derek Hamilton hit a two-out single to right field after the first two batters of the inning had reached on walks by Becker. With runners at second and third after a stolen base, Becker struck out Rattler cleanup hitter Jacob Marler to strand the two runners and preserve the lead.

Brown earned his team-leading sixth save of the season by finishing off the final two innings and recording four strikeouts. He started his 16th appearance of the season in the eighth by getting a groundout to Kohler at second base and then striking out the next two. The ninth was a 1-2-3 inning again with a leadoff groundout to Paxton DeLaGarza at shortstop and then two more strikeouts. Brown, who is tied for the LSC lead in saves this season and now has 11 in his career, owns an impressive 0.36 ERA and has 25 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings of relief.

Norkeh led the Rams by going 2-for-4 at the plate for the only multi-hit performance of the night for ASU, while David Goggin hit an eighth-inning triple for his first extra-base hit of the season after coming back from injury three weeks ago. DeLaGarza went 1-for-3 and now leads the team with a .397 average and Tyner now has two home runs this season and in his career after his first-inning homer. Tyner is hitting .336 with 18 RBI for the Rams.

ASU and Cameron will open their three-game set at 2 p.m. on Friday before playing a 1 p.m. doubleheader (7/9) on Saturday in Lawton. The Rams swept a four-game series over the Aggies in the first meeting between the two teams at Foster Field during a two-day, four-game series on the first two days of March. The Aggies are coming off splitting a four-game series last weekend at home against West Texas A&M and are 7-6 on their home field this season.