EDINBURG — The UTRGV baseball team won its third straight game with a 9-3 nonconference victory against Incarnate Word onTuesday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
The Vaqueros avenged a 13-8 loss against the Cardinals suffered March 15 in San Antonio. UTRGV improved to 21-15 overalland sits at 7-8 in Western Athletic Conference play.
“They put it on us at their place earlier in the year. We’re a better team now than we were then, and that’s my job and ourassistant coaches’ job is to get this team better as the year goes,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said.
UTRGV redshirt freshman Randy Garza made his second start of the season and delivered 4.1 innings of shutout ball whilesurrendering three hits and four walks with four strikeouts.
Garza, an Alice native who spent his freshman year at Houston before transferring to UTRGV, earned his first career win.
“It’s definitely been a grind, but you stick to the process and just keep trusting in your stuff and believing in yourself. All thehard work you do, the dedication you put out here pays off and I’m thankful for that,” Garza said. “It was a great day. Kind of gotout there and tried to attack the strike zone, get ahead and the offense had my back. It was a great start to the week andhopefully we can get the weekend going now.”
“What a great start. He’s getting better and better,” Matlock said about Garza. “His stuff is really good, so I’m pretty fired up forhim. It was a great opportunity for him.”
UTRGV designated hitter Bryan Sturges blasted a two-run home run, his fifth of the season, during the fifth inning to give theVaqueros a 6-0 lead. Third baseman Diego Ramirez hit his first career home run with a two-run shot during the seventh.
Ramirez finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Brett Cain went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Rojasfinished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Junior Chris Mondesi went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Sturges drove in agame-high three runs.
The Vaqueros are back in action with a three-game WAC series against Abilene Christian beginning at 6 p.m. Friday at CrutcherScott Field in Abilene. Game 2 is slated for 3 p.m. Saturday, with the series finale scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. All three gamesare available to watch on ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+.
