SAN ANGELO, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes are one win away from playing on Championship Monday as they kept their season alive on Saturday afternoon with a walkoff wild pitch to take a 2-1 decision from the Rams of Angelo State in front of over 1.600 people at Foster Field in San Angelo, Texas. The Buffs improve to 36-17 overall while the Rams fall to 42-14 on the season.
 
The Buffs got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning as hits by Jimmy Cubillos, Luis Amaro and Chad Brown to load the bases with two outs before Troy LaBrie was hit by a 0-1 offering to score Nick Canas from third for the early 1-0 lead.
 
Tyler Coolbaugh singled to right field with one out in the top of the second followed by a wild pitch to move the senior into scoring position before Joshua Payne responded with a strikeout followed by what looked to be an throw that pulled Luis Amaro off the bag but an umpire conversation overturned the call to end the inning with WT leading 1-0.
 
Adam Adkins started the bottom of the fifth with a single up the middle followed by an Aaron Vallance sac bunt to turn the lineup over, ASU's Ryan Smith responded with his second strikeout of the afternoon followed by a grounder to Jacob Boston at first to end the inning.
 
Jay Gonzales drew a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh followed by a hit-and-run from Matt Waller to put runners on second and third with no outs to knock Payne from the game, Dominic Yearego entered from the bullpen and forced a groundout to Bodie Bryan at second as Gonzales scored on the play followed by a flyout to Cubillos in center and a grounder to Bryan to end the inning tied at 1-1.
 
Amaro started off the home half of the ninth with a single thru the right side as Blake Weaver came in to run at first, Brown layed down a sac bunt to move Weaver to second followed by an intentional walk to LaBrie to put Buffs on first and second with one out. Christian Loya singled to right center to load the bases before the game ended as Weaver scored on a 2-0 wild pitch to give WT the 2-1 win.
 
Yearego picked up the win (6-0) for the Buffs, giving up no runs on no hits with no walks and two strikeouts in the final 3.0 innings of play. Payne had another strong outing as he allowed just one run on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Smith picked up the loss (11-1) for the Rams, giving up two runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts in the complete game defeat.
 
The Buffs keep their season alive as they take on the Lions of Arkansas-Fort Smith on Sunday afternoon with first pitch set for 3:30 p.m. with a spot in Championship Monday on the line. The Lions finished off a 15-12 win over St. Edward's earlier in the day to conclude Friday's only action due to weather delays yesterday.