CORPUS CHRISTI – Five relievers combined to pitch eight scoreless innings as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-3 on Tuesday at Chapman Field during the penultimate contest of the inaugural South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union.
 
Senior Austin Kufrovich took over one batter into the second inning, racking up a career-high four strikeouts in a season-high four innings.
 
Freshman Austin Gussman made his collegiate debut in the sixth, retiring all three batters he faced on two groundouts and a flyout.
 
Junior George Lamb (1-1) took over in the seventh, striking out three in two scoreless innings.
 
Then, after junior Josh Witherspoon started the ninth, graduate student Connor Grant recorded the final three outs for his first save.
 
Corpus Christi (13-24) jumped in front right away, scoring on a Dawson Yates fielder's choice and a Dalton Stark single to make it 2-0.
 
UTRGV (21-19) responded immediately, as freshman Tyler Torres singled in a run to make it 2-1.
 
Corpus Christi got that run back in the bottom of the inning on a Cam Boudreaux single that made it 3-1.
 
That was it until the fifth, when junior Cris Castillo reached on a fielder's choice to score a run and make it 3-2.
 
UTRGV tied the game in the sixth on a two-out triple by senior Victor Garcia Jr., who finished 2-for-4. UTRGV now has 12 triples in 40 games this year, its most since 2014, when it hit 12 triples in 57 games.
 
UTRGV took the lead in the eighth against David Worrell (0-2) on a fielder's choice by sophomore Conrad McMahon.
 
UTRGV resumes Western Athletic Conference play on Friday at 9 p.m. when it opens up a three-game series at Grand Canyon.
 
UTRGV and Corpus Christi close out the inaugural South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, on May 2 at 7 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

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