Angelo State punches ticket to College World Series for fifth time

North Carolina, here they come again!

The Angelo State University Rams punched their ticket to the NCAA Division II College World Series for the second straight year after beating Colorado Mesa 16-6 in a winner-take-all South Central Super Regional game Saturday night at Foster Field at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium.

After dropping the opener of the best-of-three games series Friday night, ASU won Game 2 12-3 Saturday afternoon to set up a decisive Game 3.

The Rams will be making their fifth appearance in the CWS under longtime head coach Kevin Brooks. Last year, ASU enjoyed its best finish by reaching the semifinals.

The CWS is scheduled for June 4-11 in Cary, North Carolina.

"First, I've got to talk about Colorado Mesa," Brooks said. "Like I said before this thing ever started, I think it's become a really good rivalry in Division II baseball and, man, what a tough group to get by. Coach (Chris) Hanks and his staff do a marvelous job.

"Today started with the guy to my left -- Aaron Munson. He set the tone for the day and went out against arguably one of the premier offenses in D-II baseball and on a hitter's day, he went out and attacked. To go eight innings on a day when I think the game-time temperature was 103 when we started, he was really efficient and gutted it up and that saved some ammunition for (the final game)."

The Rams actually trailed 6-3 in the fourth inning of Game 3 before storming back by scoring the game's final 13 runs — highlighted by Tayten Tredaway's go-ahead grand slam.

ASU improved to 50-12. Colorado Mesa finished 43-17.

This has been one of the top rivalries in Division II for the last several years. Either ASU or Mesa has reached the CWS in seven of the last eight years.

In addition to making it to the CWS the last two years, ASU also advanced in 2007, 2015 and 2016.

In Saturday's first game, the Rams got a masterful pitching performance from Munson.

The crafty right-hander handcuffed the Mavericks' powerful hitters. He scattered 12 hits in eight innings and held Mesa to three earned runs while improving to 10-2 on the year.

"Nerves were there, I'll be honest," Munson said. "It was more of just kind of waiting to get on the mound. And then after I kind of shut them down, the nerves kind of went away."

Tripp Clark, Koby Kelton and Aaron Walters connected on home runs in the fourth inning for the Rams. Kelton's was a two-run shot.

Mesa starter Frankie Fitzgerald (3-3) took the loss after giving up 10 hits and eight runs (six earned) in 3.1 innings.

In Saturday's nightcap, the Rams took a 3-0 lead in the second inning before Mesa had three straight homers by Caleb Farmer, Haydn McGeary and Spencer Bramwell in the third to move ahead 4-3.

"Then they get two more and it's 6-3, and then (reliever) Kyle Moseley just comes in at a huge time and didn't allow any more," Brooks said. "We attacked the strike zone. I think that's the biggest thing. We had zero walks and that's what we do. We're going to make you beat us and play good defense."

The Rams responded with six runs in the bottom of the fourth, capped by Tredaway's grand slam to take a 9-6 lead.

"(Tredaway) had a two-strike pitch and, man, hit that good and we sort of played downhill from there," Brooks said. "Like I said (Friday) night, I felt good coming into today. We didn't play like ourselves last night and I thought if we could (on Saturday), we'd be sitting where we are. I'm really proud of the guys."

Tredaway finished 2-for-4 with six RBIs.

Aaron Walters went 4-for-6 with three RBIs and one run, and Kelton was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run.

Rams starter Carson Childers gave up eight hits and six earned runs in three innings, before giving way to Moseley.

Moseley (4-2) earned the win after limiting the Mavericks to three hits and no runs the rest of the way.

Dave Henderson, Mesa's second of five pitchers on the night, took the loss and dropped to 4-4. In two-thirds of an inning, he gave up one hit and three earned runs.

Hanks talked about the season-ending loss for the Mavericks.

"I'm really proud of our guys," the Mesa coach said. "We have a good club and great competitors, and even better people. We didn't play great today and Angelo played excellent. I tip my cap to them. We knew coming into the regional out here that we were thin on our pitching a little bit from some injuries and missing some guys.

"We knew it was going to be tough and after last night's win, we knew we had a shot. We decided to pull (pitcher) Ryan Day off until Game 3, hoping somehow that we could win Game 2 and give him rest going into (the CWS). He gutted it out and gave us some innings. They fought hard, but Angelo just played really good today."

Angelo State 12, Colorado Mesa 3

Game 2 of Super Regional

ASU 220 410 111--12 18 0

Mesa 010 001 100--3 14 1

Frankie Fitzgerald, Jacob Rhoades (4), Kyle Miller (6) and Spencer Bramwell. Aaron Munson, Jack Briley (9) and Tripp Clark. WP -- Munson (10-2). LP -- Fitzgerald (3-3). 2B -- ASU: Justin Harris. HR -- ASU: Koby Kelton, Aaron Walters, Tripp Clark; Mesa: Haydn McGeary, Jonathan Gonzalez.

Angelo State 16, Colorado Mesa 6

Game 3 of Super Regional

Mesa 004 200 000--6 11 2

ASU 030 630 40x--16 16 0

Carson Childers, Kyle Moseley (4) and Tripp Clark. Ryan Day, Dave Henderson (4), Cade Nicol (4), Cooper Vasquez (5), Isaac Hayen (7) and Spencer Bramwell. WP -- Moseley (4-2). LP -- Henderson (4-4). 2B --  Mesa: Jordan Stubbings, Johnny Carr; ASU: Aaron Walters. HR -- ASU: Tayten Tredaway, Clark; Mesa: Caleb Farmer, Haydn McGeary, Bramwell. Records -- Angelo State is 50-12, Colorado Mesa finished 43-17.

Charles Bryce is a journalist covering sports in West Texas. Send him a news tip at cbryce@gannett.com. Consider supporting West Texas journalism with a subscription to GoSanAngelo.com.

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Angelo State baseball headed to College World Series for fifth time