UTRGV REPORTS
The UTRGV baseball team completed a three-game sweep of the Tarleton Texans with a 7-4 victory Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
Brett Cain led the Vaqueros (26-18, 12-9 WAC) offensively by going 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs. Junior Brandon Pimentel went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, two RBIs and three runs scored.
Pimentel hit his double to leadoff the fourth against Matthew Hickey (2-2), coming around to score on a one-out RBI single by Freddy Rojas Jr. to tie the game at 1-1.
With two outs during the fifth, freshman Edinburg Vela alum Isaac Lopez was plunked on a 3-2 pitch. Cameron Blake followed with a single to set-up a two-run triple by Pimentel. Cain followed with an RBI double to put the Vaqueros up 4-1.
Freshman Randy Garza started for the Vaqueros, racking up a career-high seven strikeouts in four innings of one-hit ball. Garza retired the first eight batters he faced and nine of the first 10. The lone hit came during the fourth, as with runners on the corners and one out, Kemuel Thomas-Rivera hit an RBI single to give the Texans (13-30, 6-15 WAC) a 1-0 lead.
Ricky Gerik Jr. (4-3) pitched a 1-2-3 fifth before allowing a run on a two-out single by Jake Escalon during the sixth.
The Texans added another two-out run during the seventh on a London Green RBI single.
The Vaqueros responded with three runs during the bottom of the inning on a Cain two-run single and a Rojas RBI on fielder’s choice to make the score 7-3.
After the Texans put the first two men aboard during the ninth, Green hit an RBI groundout to make it a three-run game, but sophomore Zach Tjelmeland recorded the final three outs for his first-career save.
UTRGV hits the road to take on Texas at San Antonio at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
