SAN ANGELO, Texas – In game one of the battle of the top ranked teams in the country, the Colorado Mesa Mavericks dropped an 8-2 decision to the Angelo State Rams to open the NCAA South Central Super Regional at Foster Field.
 
Colorado Mesa, the top ranked team in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, took the early lead in the top of the third inning. Declan Wiesner led off the inning with a double to left field and moved up to third base on a wild pitch. The next batter up, Jonathan Gonzalez grounded out to shortstop that allowed Wiesner to score from third to give the Mavericks the 1-0 lead after three innings.
 
Angelo State, the top ranked team in the NCBWA poll, responded in the bottom of the fourth inning. They scored one run with one out then a fielder's choice bunt made it two outs in the inning. The Rams got back-to-back hits that plated three runs giving them the 4-1 lead.
 
The Rams added two more in the bottom of the fifth for a 6-1 lead.
 
Colorado Mesa got one back in the top of the sixth inning on a Conrad Villafuerte RBI single that nearly took pitcher Aaron Munson's head off. The base hit scored Julian Boyd who walked earlier in the inning and moved up on a wild pitch. The run cut into the Angelo State lead to make it 6-2 after six.
 
Angelo State would tally single runs in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings for the 8-2 advantage.
 
Stevenson Reynolds paced the Mavericks at the plate as he finished the game 2-for-4 as the lone Maverick with multiple hits.
 
Jacob Rhoades took the loss on the mound to fall to 6-3 on the season. He allowed four runs on four hits, walked four and struck out three in four innings of work.
 
The two teams will continue the series tomorrow at 2:00pm mountain time.