Baseball drops fifth straight at ASU

UPDATED STATISTICS»

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Feb. 18) - Daniel Beaver's three-run homer capped a six-run third inning for Angelo State on Saturday, as the Rams denied the Cameron baseball team its first victory of the season with a 10-5 win under frigid conditions at ASU's Foster Field. The teams were slated to play a double-header, but with near freezing temperatures, play was shortened to a single nine-inning game.

Aggie starter L.J. Willis allowed just two earned runs as ASU capitalized on five Cameron errors to drop the Aggies to 0-5 on the season.

Angelo State struck first in the bottom half of the first inning, scoring a run on a failed Cameron pickoff attempt. But the Aggies evened the count on Josh Mathiesen's RBI single in the second and took the lead with a pair of unearned runs in the third.

But the Rams broke the game open in the bottom of the third scoring six runs off four hits and a Cameron error. An RBI single, and RBI double and Beaver's homer all came after an Aggie miscue and with two outs, when Cameron should have been out of the inning.

Cameron tried to chip away at the ASU lead, scoring runs in the fourth and fifth frames on an RBI triple by Blake Hughes and an RBI groundout by Matt Machinski. But the Rams added a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth as Kyle Gibson came on to earn a save by holding the Aggies hitless over the final three innings.

Mathiesen, who saw his first action since suffering injury in the Aggies' season opening double-header against Pittsburg State on Feb. 4, finished 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI. Ryan Whiteley and Mark Armstrong also recorded two hits for the Aggies.

Willis took the loss on the mound for Cameron, scattering eight hits over seven inning while allowing just two earned runs. Ryan Totte worked the eighth inning for the Aggies, allowing just one hit and no earned runs.

Both teams will take the field again on Sunday, with a pair of seven-inning games scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.