EDINBURG — The UTRGV baseball team completed its four-game sweep of Northern Illinois with a pair of one-run victories Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
The Vaqueros rallied to win Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader 4-3 in extra innings as DeAndre’ Shelton drove in the game-winning run on a single. UTRGV pulled out another victory in Game 2 by a score of 5-4 as starting pitcher Max Balderrama Jr. (1-0) threw five scoreless innings, while striking out a career-high 10 batters.
UTRGV has now won five consecutive games with the start of Western Athletic Conference play set to begin Friday.
“The positive is we got four starters ready for conference, it looks like. I thought they all pitched really well,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said. “I thought for the most part we played good defense, and I think the offense was pretty good.
After blowing Northern Illinois out during the first two games of the series, the Vaqueros dug deep to pull out two close wins Sunday.
“We’re excited. We got a bunch of talent that’s playing hard and when you win close games, you have a good team, because bad teams give those games away and we found a way to win two games that were close,” Matlock said. “I think the year we won a conference championship, I think we won 14 or 15 one-run games, so we better be good in tight games. They’re going to get tight and we’re going to have to make pitches late and get two-out hits to win.”
Coleman Grubbs and Freddy Rojas Jr. led the Vaqueros with two RBI apiece, while Shelton, Conrado Diaz, Diego Ramirez, Christian Sepulveda, Spence Serven all chipped in by driving in one run. Reliever Chase Bridges picked up the win in Game 1 on Sunday as he struck out two and induced a pop-up bunt.
“It’s hard to win a three-game series, it’s just the way baseball is, it’s hard to do, and it’s really hard to win four. I think 60-70% of double headers split, so if you can win two in one day, that’s a good day,” Matlock said.
UTRGV plays its next 13 games on the road, beginning with four games to open Western Athletic Conference play. The Vaqueros are set to face Grand Canyon from Friday through Sunday, with the first pitch of Game 1 slated for 7 p.m. Friday. Fans can watch for free online at WACDigitalNetwork.com.
