EDINBURG — Two shades of orange and a record-breaking crowd of 6,418 took over Edinburg on Tuesday as the UTRGV Vaqueros welcomed the No. 6-ranked Texas Longhorns for a nonconference game at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
The contest marked Texas’ first trip to the Rio Grande Valley in 51 years, when legacy institution Pan-American defeated the Longhorns three out of four times during the 1971 regular season.
“What a great crowd, what a great atmosphere. This program has come a long way in five years and it’s got to come a lot further,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said after a 7-2 loss against the Longhorns. “Our expectations are better than that. We have to beat teams like that. If we’re going to get in the mix like they were when they were the Broncs, then we have to beat teams like that at home. … I’m really thankful for the Valley and all the people that came out to support us — it means a lot to me and it means a lot to our kids.”
After a night of storms and a morning filled with rain put the game’s status up in the air, UTRGV athletics brought out the big guns to guarantee a game. A tarp was used overnight to keep the rain away before a helicopter was brought in to help dry the field at 3:50 p.m., two and a half hours before game time.
Fans were everywhere — seats, suites, on their feet, tailgating and standing outside of the ballpark’s outfield fence to catch the Vaqueros and Longhorns in action. Lines to get in wrapped around both sides of UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
“It was really cool. I’m not going to forget this for a long time, especially with the crowd and the team we played — I love it and we love it as a team,” Edinburg Vela alum and redshirt freshman sophomore Isaac Lopez said.
Tickets for the game, which originally went on sale for $8 an adult, sold out on March 6. The only tickets available as of gameday were being sold online through second-hand ticket-sellers for more than 10 times the original price.
Stephen Galvan, a freshman kinesiology major at UTRGV, was part of a group of UTRGV students that was first in line to get in. Galvan and his friends waited hours to get in free with their student IDs to choose their spots in a sold out crowd.
“Everybody’s been talking about it. It’s all over Twitter, all over campus,” he said. “We really wanted to catch the game, get the seats that we wanted. We thought it was going to be packed like it is, so we wanted to make sure we got our seats.”
Along with current students taking in the game were Pan-American baseball alumni.
Lupe Salinas, an Edinburg High alum who served as the No. 1 pitcher on the 1971 Pan American team that beat Texas the last time they visited the Valley, was in attendance along with several teammates from his Broncs’ days.
“This is a big thing for them today because so many people are here today. It’s a great time to get together again,” Salinas said of UTRGV’s game against Texas.
High school baseball players from across the RGV also made the trip to UTRGV Baseball Stadium. Members of Brownsville Veterans’ baseball team, along with their coaches, traveled more than an hour to make the game.
“It’s all thanks to our coaches, especially coach (Adam) Vera. He was a college baseball player, so he wants us to come out here and experience the atmosphere and the hype behind these guys’ hard work to get us a little motivation before we head into playoffs,” said Brownsville Veterans senior James Benson. “This is one of the more memorable experiences this season. It’s fun to see us all out here smiling — that’s what it’s all about.”
