March 26, 2006

Box Score

The University of Texas-Pan American baseball team won its fourth straight game on Sunday (Mar. 26) over the Texas A&M - Corpus Christi Islanders in Corpus Christi, TX by a score of 8-3.

T.J. Gilmer (Forney, TX/Forney H.S.) led the game off with a walk and Louie Alamia (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) followed with a double, moving Gilmer over to third. Osiel Flores (Mission, TX/UT-Brownsville) then hit a ground ball to shortstop, scoring Gilmer and advancing Alamia to third. The next batter, Zach Smith (Sanger, TX/Sanger H.S.), hit a sacrifice fly to give UTPA a 2-0 lead. TAMUCC pulled within one in the bottom half of the inning when Miguel Mercado doubled off Bronc starter Ricky Ibarz (Caracas, Venezuela/New Mexico J.C.) to drive in a run.

Scoring resumed in the seventh inning when Jason Buhagiar (Penngrove, CA/Santa Rosa J.C.) tripled to left center field, driving in two runs to give the Broncs a 4-1 lead. The Islanders again answered in the bottom part of the frame with a Cory Jordan solo home run, pulling within two. The Bronc bats woke up in the eighth inning as they scored four runs on six hits. UTPA connected on three triples in the inning as they put the game out of reach.

Ibarz continued to rack up strikeouts as he sat down 14 Islander batters on strikes in seven innings of work to bring his season total to 76. The southpaw allowed just two earned runs on five hits without issuing a walk and evened his season record at 3-3.

At the plate, Garcia was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one run batted in. Alamia and Chris Lozano (El Paso, TX/Phoenix College) both had two-hit games and both also scored one run. Buhagiar led the team in RBI with two while going 1-for-4 at the plate.

Kelly Casares (Missouri City, TX/McLennan J.C.) pitched the eighth inning and allowed one run on three hits while Tim Haines (Mission, TX/Blinn College) threw the final frame, facing the minimum three hitters and striking out two.

The Broncs accumulated 12 hits in the contest, six of which were extra-base hits. Four Bronc hitters legged out triples and two others had doubles.

UTPA improved to 15-17 on the year while Texas A&M - Corpus Christi fell to 11-17.

The Broncs resume play on Friday (Mar. 31) when they travel to Corvallis, OR to face the Oregon State Beavers in a three-game series. Game one begins at 6:00 p.m.

UTPA Sports Information