Feb. 27, 2004
Feb. 27, 2004 -
Edinburg, Texas - Well, the fans certainly got their money's worth tonight at the Edinburg Baseball Stadium. Texas-Pan American (7-8) took a hard fought 3-2 win over Washington State (5-3) in 10 innings. The game was a pitching dual as there were 16 strikeouts and the teams combined to hit .194 (13-of-67).
The Broncs drew first blood. In the third inning, Ricky Broyles (Jr./Longview, Texas/Northeast Texas CC) crushed a double to left field. With Broyles running on the pitch, Louie Alamia (So./Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg North HS) laced a single through the left side and Broyles was able to score.
In the seventh inning, UTPA got a little loose with the baseball. Three throwing errors allowed Jeremy Farrar to score and tie the game at 1-1. Texas-Pan American came right back in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Tony Ortiz (Jr./Fort Worth, Texas/Nolan HS) singled to left center to score Alamia and make it 2-1. In the ninth inning, with two outs, Brandon Reddinger hit a hard shot to shortstop that allowed J.J. Burress to score and force extra innings.
In the 10th inning, Alamia led off with a walk. John Lopez (Jr./Mission, Texas/Mission HS) hit a grounder to the pitcher, Brandon Hundt. Hundt's throw to second sailed into the outfield and allowed Alamia to reach third. Ortiz was intentionally walked to load the bases. Marco Garza (Jr./Mission, Texas/Sharyland HS) then dropped the ball into left center field to score Alamia and end the game.
For UTPA, T.J. Gilmer (So./Forney, Texas/Forney HS) was 2-for-4, Garza had two hits and Ortiz recorded 14 put outs. Alamia was 2-for-3, drove in a run and scored two runs. He extended his hitting streak to 12 games and his reaching base safely streak to 26 games. Justin Bogy (Sr./West Columbia, Texas/West Columbia HS) struck out one batter in the tenth inning to move his record to 1-1. Juan Saenz (Jr./Mission, Texas/Mission HS) had a very strong outing as he threw the first six innings, giving up three hits and striking out six batters.
For Washington State, Reddinger was 3-for-4 and Grant Richardson had 13 put outs. Aaron MacKenzie gave up five hits, one run and struck out six batters in seven innings.
"This was a great game that went down to the wire." Said head coach Willie Gawlik. "We had very strong pitching today. I thought that Juan did a great job for us. Chad Linder (Fr./Reklaw, Texas/Rusk HS) had a heck of an outing for us. We had one bad inning where we threw the ball around a lot. But we battled back through adversity. The team and I really want to thank our fans. The enthusiasm they showed tonight was incredible. They did a great job of supporting us. They (Washington State) are a good team and tomorrow should be another battle."
Texas-Pan American will play Washington State tomorrow. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m.
