CORPUS CHRISTI – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6-5 in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, on Tuesday at Chapman Field.
Corpus Christi (13-8) extends its lead over UTRGV (13-9) to 25.5-to-20.5 in the showdown standings, clinching the championship with only four points still available at a track & field meet on April 7 at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
Junior
Conrad McMahon led UTRGV offensively, going 3-for-4 with a run scored. Sophomores
Elijah Alexander and
Tyler Torres each finished with two hits, including a double and two runs scored. Torres also walked.
UTRGV trailed 5-3 after six innings. In the seventh, however, senior
Austin Siener singled to bring in Alexander and make the score 5-4.
In the eighth, senior
Cris Castillo hit into a fielder's choice to score Torres and tie the game at 5.
In the ninth, however, junior
Ben Butler (1-2) plunked leadoff hitter
Jackson Owens, who advanced to third as Corpus Christi loaded the bases with one out.
Andriud Martinez hit a weak dribbler toward second just far enough between first and the mound that no one could field the ball before Owens scored the winning run.
That made a winner of
Cole Carter (4-1), who pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, striking out three.
UTRGV took the lead three batters into the game, as Alexander doubled and scored on an RBI-single by senior
Ivan Estrella.
In the second, UTRGV put runners at second and third with one out. Freshman
Zach Parks drove-in a run with a groundout and then an error scored another run to put UTRGV up 3-0.
Corpus Christi got two back on a two-out double by
Itchy Burts in the fourth.
Then, in the fifth, Owens hit a sacrifice fly and
Luke Marbach came up with an RBI-single to give Corpus Christi a 4-3 lead.
Corpus Christi added a run in the sixth on a
Harrison Dinicola sacrifice fly.
UTRGV opens Western Athletic Conference play on Friday at 7 p.m. against CSU Bakersfield at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. The first 250 fans in attendance will receive car magnets. Gates open at 6.
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