The No. 6 Texas Longhorns beat UTRGV 13-5 in a nonconference matchup Tuesday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.
Center fielder Brett Cain led the Vaqueros (16-12) by driving in three runs while going 2-for-4 with a home run. Left fielder Brandon Pimentel went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Sophomore PSJA High alum Jacob Sanchez went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored. Catcher Bryan Sturges extended his hitting streak to 10 games by going 1-for-4. He is now 20-for-42 (.476) during the streak.
Skyler Messinger led the Longhorns (22-9) by going 4-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Ivan Melendez went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Murphy Stehly went 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBIs and one run scored.
The Longhorns jumped out to a 6-0 lead against UTRGV’s Max Balderrama Jr. (1-2) during the first inning.
Freshman Edinburg Vela alum Isaac Lopez got one back for the Vaqueros with an RBI single during the second before the Longhorns extended their lead to 8-1 during the third.
Cain took over from there, hitting a two-run home run during the fourth, his fifth season of the season, to make the score 8-3.
Down 9-3 during the fifth, Sanchez hit an RBI single to knock out starter Justin Eckhardt and Cain greeted Jared Southard (1-1) with a fourth-pitch RBI single to make the score 9-5.
UTRGV opens a three-game series against Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg. All three games will stream online through ESPN’s streaming service ESPN+.
