Edinburg, Texas - Texas-Pan American (11-10) used defense and pitching to bring out the broom for a sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-11), 2-0 and 10-5. The Broncs held the Islanders to hitting just .229 to extend their winning streak to four games. This is the second straight series that UTPA has held their opponents to under .230 for batting.
Game 1 came down to taking advantage of mistakes. In the third inning, Ricky Broyles (Jr./Longview, Texas/Northeast Texas CC) made it to second base when his grounder to third was thrown into right field. He advanced to third on a fly out and then scored on a sharp single to center field by Marco Garza (Jr./Mission, Texas/Sharyland HS).
In the top of the sixth, with one out, Broyles hit a fly ball that was dropped by the catcher allowing him to reach base. A single by Louie Alamia (So./Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg North HS) and walk by T.J. Gilmer (So./Forney, Texas/Forney HS) loaded the bases. Garza lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Broyles. In the bottom of the seventh, with runners at second and third, Bobby Mora hit a line drive down the left field line. Gilmer made a spectacular running catch to end the inning.
For UTPA, Garza was 1-for-3 and drove in two runs and Broyles scored two runs. Alamia extended his hitting streak to 17 games and his reaching base safely streak to 31. Justin Bogy (Sr./West Columbia, Texas/West Columbia HS), Chad Linder (Fr./Reklaw, Texas/Rusk HS) and Broyles combined for a six-hitter with five strike outs and only two walks. Bogy gave up four hits and struck out two in five innings to improve to 2-1. Broylespitched two-thirds of an inning for his fifth save of the season.
For Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Josh Hulin and Jamie Landin had two hits each. Scott Walker picked up the loss giving up four hits, two runs, neither of them earned and struck out two in six innings.
Game 2 featured a Bronc comeback. UTPA struck gold in the top of the first inning. With one out, the Broncs got three straight singles from Gilmer, Garza and Phillip Rodriguez (Fr./Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg North HS) to load the bases. Tony Ortiz (Jr./Fort Worth, Texas/Nolan HS) drew a walk to make it 1-0. A wild pitch scored Garzaand a ground out drove in Rodriguez.
The Islanders chipped away at the lead. They scored one in the first and got a two run home run from Jose Rodriguez in the second inning to tie the game. One run in the third and the fourth made it 5-3 TAMCC. As it has been all season, UTPA got a big hit when needed the most. With two outs in the fifth, Gilmer walked and Garzawas hit by a pitch. P. Rodriguez then crushed a triple to right field to tie the game. Ortiz gave the Broncs the lead for good when he singled to right center to plate P. Rodriguez. Texas-Pan American would score two runs in the seventh and in the eighth to seal the game.
For UTPA, Garza was 4-for-4, scored three runs and drove in two runs, Ortiz was 3-for-4 and drove in three runs, P. Rodriguez was 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI's and Gilmer was 2-for-4 with three runs. Alamiapushed his hitting streak to 18 games and his reaching base safely streak to 32. Johnny Gibson (Sr./Sachse, Texas/Collin County CC) was amazing as he gave up no hits, walked two and struck out five batters in five innings for his first win of the season. On the day, the Bronc bullpen faced 24 batters and gave up two hits, walked three and struck out eight.
For TAMCC, Mora and Rodriguez each had two hits and two RBI's. Jorge Huerta fell to 1-4 as he gave up six hits, six runs and struck out two batters in 4 and two-third innings.
"Pitching and defense is how you win games." Said head coach Willie Gawlik. "These were two big wins for us today. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi always has a good team and this year is no exception. Our pitchers threw really well and we played great defense. T.J.'s catch in game one in the sixth was simply incredible and it saved the game for us. Marco had an RBI single and an RBI sacrifice fly in that game. Ryne Foster (Fr./Cedar Park, Texas/Cedar Park HS) kept us in game two. Johnny just pitched an awesome game throwing five innings of no hit ball. It's great to see that and it is a big boost for the team. Marco was 5-for-8 and drove in four runs. That is just an awesome performance."
