The UTRGV baseball team completed the three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Panthers with a 15-3 victory in seven innings Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
UTRGV welcomed a total of 5,139 fans for the three-game series, bringing the season attendance total to 7,837 through five dates, an average of 1,567 per date.
Junior Edinburg Vela alumnus Issac Lopez led the Vaqueros (5-1) offensively by going 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, four RBIs and three runs scored. Graduate student CJ Valdez finished a double short of the cycle, going 3-for-3 with a walk. Junior Sharyland High alumnus Martin Vazquez went 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs scored.
The Vaqueros led 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, which is when they sent 14 batters to the plate against three different pitchers to score nine runs on five hits, four walks, a hit batsman, two wild pitches and an errant pickoff throw.
Vazquez was plunked to start the inning and Valdez followed with his second home run of the season. Senior Marc Schavone followed with a walk, moved to second on a wild pickoff throw, and to third on a sacrifice bunt. After freshman Edinburg Vela alumnus Rudy Gonzalez walked, a wild pitch brought home Schavone. After another wild pitch moved Gonzalez to third, senior PSJA North alumnus Damian Rodriguez walked and senior Kade York laid down a squeeze to bring home Gonzalez. Lopez and junior Steven Lancia followed with RBI-singles. Vazquez singled and Valdez walked to load the bases, setting up a bases-clearing triple by Schavone, his first hit as a Vaquero, to cap the inning with the score 12-1.
The Panthers (0-6) scored twice in the top of the seventh before Lopez hit a walk-off 3-run home run in the bottom of the inning.
After the Panthers pushed across a run against senior Zach Tjelmeland (1-0) in the top of the first, the Vaqueros responded in the bottom of the inning with a 3-run home run by Vazquez against Gavin Theis (0-2) to make the score 3-1.
Tjelmeland pitched a career-high 6.0 innings of 1-run ball, striking out four while scattering four hits and two walks.
UTRGV hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union. The first 500 fans in attendance will receive Beat Corpus t-shirts.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at GoUTRGV.com/Tickets.
