The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team closed out the regular season with a 6-2 victory over the Sacramento State Hornets on Saturday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 4,314.
UTRGV opens the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament as the No. 7 seed on Tuesday at 2 p.m. against No. 6 UT Arlington in a single-elimination contest. The winner advances to the double-elimination portion of the tournament Wednesday at 2 p.m. against No. 3 Utah Valley. All games take place at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland A’s, in Mesa, Ariz.
Fans can watch domestically on ESPN+ or internationally via WAC International.
UTRGV improves upon its single-season program attendance, finishing at 62,132, along with a program record average of 2,219 fans across 28 home dates.
Saturday’s attendance is the fifth largest for UTRGV since moving into UTRGV Baseball Stadium in 2002. Seven of the top 10 attendance marks for UTRGV at UTRGV Baseball Stadium have been achieved this season along with the 6,044 against UT Arlington on April 6 (second), the 5,374 against Utah Valley on April 13 (third), the 4,451 against Sacramento State on May 17 (fourth), the 4,313 against Grand Canyon on March 23 (sixth), the 3,962 against Stephen F. Austin on April 28 (ninth), and the 3,915 against Stephen F. Austin on April 27 (10th).
In his final home game, senior Kade Yorkled the Vaqueros (27-24, 15-15 WAC) by creating their first two runs and making a Sportscenter Top 10-worth play.
York led off the first with a walk against Sean Carey (0-1), stole second, moved to third on an error, and scored on a groundout by freshman Easton Moomau to make the score 1-0.
York had the Vaqueros’ first hit, a solo home run, his fifth of the season, with one out in the third to put the Vaqueros up 2-1.
In the fifth, with a runner at first and two outs, Tyler White scorched a ball up the middle. York ranged to his left and dove to snare the ball and then made a backhanded shovel pass to second to get the out and end the inning.
Sophomore Wyatt Wiatrek started and pitched a career-high 4.2 innings of 2-hit ball, striking out five.
The Hornets (26-30, 14-16 WAC) scored their lone run against Wiatrek with two outs in the fifth on a White RBI-single.
Junior Jack Lopez (1-0) followed Wiatrek with 1.1 hitless innings, striking out one, for his first-career win.
Junior Tyler Davis struck out the side in the seventh and retired the first four batters he faced while pitching 1.2 innings of 1-run ball. He racked up a career-high four strikeouts.
The run came in the eighth on a 2-out RBI-single by Jorge Bojorquez.
Senior Vela alum Nico Rodriguez recorded the final four outs, striking out one, for his fourth save.
The Vaqueros scored three runs in the fourth. The Vaqueros put runners on the corners with nobody out. Junior Hank Warren laid down a perfect bunt to the right side, beating the throw for a single while driving in a run. One batter later, with the bases loaded, junior Vela alum Isaac Lopezwalked to force-in a run. Freshman Evan Janner followed by hitting into a double play to score Warren.
The Vaqueros added a run back in the eighth on graduate student Adrian Torres’ fourth home run of the season.
