College Baseball Program of the Day #018: Angelo State Rams 🐏 2023 national champions. 2024 national runner-up. 7 Division II World Series trips. 2027 and 2028 players, Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas has been one of the best programs in all of D2 baseball, and it has only ever had one head coach. Kevin Brooks started the program in 2005 and is still running it. His record is 876-383 and he has never had a losing season. In just the program's third year, 2007, the Rams reached the D2 World Series, the fastest any program has done it in NCAA history. They are still the only Lone Star Conference team to ever make it there. The resume: - 2023 national champions at 56-9, a program and Lone Star Conference record for wins, beating Rollins 6-5 in the title game in Cary, N.C. - 2024 national runner-up, making it back-to-back trips to the national title game - World Series trips in 2007, 2015, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 - 7 South Central Regional titles and 12 NCAA tournament trips - 151 All-LSC selections, 66 All-Region picks, 32 All-Americans and 52 pros The 2026 season: - 42-19 overall and 36-14 in the Lone Star Conference, ranked No. 13 nationally - Seventh straight 40-win season - Opened the regional 2-0, including a 5-1 win over No. 6 UT Tyler on its home field behind an Austin Beck two-run homer, with Isaac Godard getting the final 11 outs without allowing a hit - The offense hit .303 with a .425 on-base percentage, scored 507 runs and stole 210 bases The players: - Austin Beck hit .339 with 20 doubles, 8 homers, 62 RBIs, a 1.009 OPS and went 50-for-54 stealing bases - Payton Bush hit .351 with a .453 on-base percentage and scored 70 runs - Chase Pendley hit .332 with 77 hits and 60 RBIs - Tate Greene hit .329 with a team-high 63 RBIs - Brett Smajstrla hit .328, slugged .561 and tripled 6 times - Blake Wilhoite hit .323 with a .517 on-base percentage and a 28-game on-base streak - Garrett Baumann went 10-5 with a 3.84 ERA and 72 strikeouts - Nick Gray went 7-2 with a 3.46 ERA and held hitters to a .181 average The pitching development is legit. Kade Bragg went 15-1 with a D2-best 1.20 ERA in 2023 and was the NCAA Division II Pitcher of the Year, then went in the 17th round of the MLB Draft, with teammate Aaron Munson going in the 19th. Trent Baker, the program's all-time winningest pitcher, went 13-1 with a 2.11 ERA in 2021 and was a 9th-round pick of the Cardinals. The staff: - Kevin Brooks, head coach. Played at Baylor and has built every team in program history - Sam Mote, assistant coach, credited with making the Rams one of the best hitting teams in the country. The 2025 ABCA Division II Assistant Coach of the Year, the first ever from the Lone Star Conference. His 2022 offense scored a program-record 677 runs, most in D2, and he has coached 8 All-Americans including the 2019 D2 Player of the Year - Adam Foster, pitching coach. His staffs led the LSC in ERA in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Before ASU he was the head coach at Georgetown High School, where he helped more than 100 players reach the next level - Cody Kingman, graduate assistant @RamsASUbaseball @angeloathletics @KBrooks15 National Baseball Recruiting | @natlbbrecruit