SAN ANGELO, Texas – The Angelo State Baseball team takes sole possession of first place in the Lone Star Conference taking both games (5-0, 2-1) in Friday afternoon's doubleheader on Foster Field at First Community Bank Stadium.

The Rams climb to 18-10 overall 11-4 in the LSC with its 11th straight win over the Cameron Aggies. Pitchers Matt Shannon (3-3) and Kellen Rholl (1-1) both added wins to their 2016 records with tonight's performances. Shannon tossed his first career complete game shutout in game one of the doubleheader. He struck out seven, walked one and only allowed five hits. The sophomore now has a conference second 63 strikeouts on the season. Rholl closed out game two for the Rams with a forced ground out and a strikeout to retire the remainder of the side in the top of the seventh. With the pair of losses, Cameron falls to 16-10, 5-10 LSC. Cameron starting pitcher Dirk Masters (1-3) and reliever Tyler Abrego (0-1) were both credited with losses.

"With Kohler at the plate and Aguirre on third, we felt we had great personnel to run the safety squeeze to close out the second game" commented head coach Kevin Brooks. " Joe Hauser entered the game early for us and did not let it get out of hand. He held Cameron scoreless through the five innings he pitched and played a major factor in keeping the game close for us." 

In the bottom of the final inning of game two, the score tied at 1-1 and runners on the corners, senior Sam Kohler stepped up to the plate. With speedster, Elias Aguirre on third there was little doubt what play call head coach Brooks was going to go with. As Cameron's Logan Fanning started his wind-up, Kohler squared and Aguirre inched towards the plate. Kohler then laid a perfect bunt down in the gap between the pitcher and third base and Aguirre raced home sliding in head first before the tag. This being the final run the Rams would need to win the game, the bench cleared in celebration.

The Aggies struck early in game two putting a run up on the board in the top of the first. It would not be until the six when the Cameron third baseman botched a routine ground ball from Jay Gonzalez that allows Paxton DeLaGarza to score from second base. This tied the game and took the two teams into the pivotal seventh inning.

In the second game of the day, relief pitcher Joe Hauser played a major role in keeping the Aggies offense at bay. The Georgetown, Texas native entered the game in the top of the second with one out and complete five innings of work. The junior struck out four and gave up zero runs off of three hits. Starting pitcher Kenton Schroter tossed 1 1/3 innings and allowed one run off of three hits and struck out one.  Kohler, Aguirre, Matt Waller and Tyler Coolbaugh recorded the teams only hits, while Kohler also recorded the teams only RBI of the game.

"In the second game we got two big home runs from Paxton [DeLaGarza] and felt comfortable with how Matt [Shannon] pitching" said Brooks.

Game one saw the rams strike first as a Coolbaugh RBI ground out plated Kohler for the first run of the game. This was followed by a solo shot over the left field fence by DeLaGarza, which gave the rams a 2-0 lead at the end of the first. In the third with Coolbaugh aboard, DeLaGarza smashed another homer over the 16 foot left field fence. This not only gave ASU a 4-0 lead, but pushed DeLaGarza into a tie for the home run lead in the LSC with a total of five on the year. Finally, a Christina Abilla ground out to second pushed Steven Pinales across taking the score to 5-0. Shannon and the Rams defense would hold steady and prevent the Aggies from mounting a rally.

DeLaGarza led the squad with a pair of homers and three RBIs for the game. Kohler also recorded multiple hits and marked the teams only double for the night. Gonzalez, Aguirre, David Goggin and Nathan Ruane also checked in with hits during game one. Pinales pocket the team's only stolen base of pf the double header during this game.

Angelo State returns to the diamond on Saturday for the final game of the series with the Aggies. Paxton DeLaGarza is slated get the start on the mound, with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.