Feb. 3, 2007
Box Score
The biggest question mark on the 2007 University of Texas-Pan American baseball squad was its pitching, and the answer in the opening games of the season came in the form of four Bronc hurlers who combined to allow just one run in two games, including a shut-out of Big 12 foe University of Oklahoma and a victory over Texas State University on Saturday (Feb. 3) at the UTPA Classic.
UTPA 3, Texas State 1
In the first game of the day, UTPA earned its first win of the season when it defeated Texas State by a score of 3-1 courtesy of a four hit and one earned-run performance in eight innings on the mound from newcomer Josh Wymer (Fort Worth, TX/Foster Ridge High School).
The Broncs struck first in the bottom of the first inning when Texas State pitcher Kyle Gembler walked lead-off hitter Abraham Garcia (McAllen, TX/McAllen Memorial H.S.) to start the game. Garcia stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error before a Jeremy Johnson (League City, TX/Alvin Junior College) single drove him home.
Texas State brought in Matt Oakes to pitch for Gembler, and the change would cost the Bobcats two runs courtesy of a Patrick Brooks (Vallejo, CA/Santa Rosa Junior College) single to left center drove in Johnson and a failed pick-off attempt by Texas State allowed Osiel Flores (Mission, TX/UT-Brownsville) to score.
The Bobcat's lone run came in the top of the seventh inning when Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to second base, allowing Aaron Garza to score.
Ray Silva (Clearlake, CA/Santa Rosa Junior College) entered the game in the ninth inning, and allowed just one hit before retiring three consecutive batters to close out the first win of the season for the Broncs.
UTPA 2, University of Oklahoma 0
In the second game of the double-header, Chad Linder (Reklaw, TX/Rusk High School) pitched 7.2 shut-out innings, allowing just three hits and three walks while striking out six batters.
The fourth inning belonged to the Broncs as the two run stanza would eventually be the game winner. Brooks started off the inning by dropping a double into left center followed by a Leighton Autry (Stephenville, TX/Navarro Junior College) double which advanced Brooks to home plate. Blake Whittlesey (Marble Falls, TX/UT-Brownsville) grounded out to short, but earned an RBI as Autry crossed home plate on the play.
The Sooners replaced starting pitcher Jimmy Rollins with Stephen Porlier after four innings of play. Rollins finished the day with allowing five hits one earned run and four strike outs.
Porlier prevented the Broncs from putting additional runs on the scoreboard as the curveball pitcher struck out six of the 12 batters he faced, allowing no hits and just one walk on balls.
UTPA's answer was local product Stephen Davila (Weslaco, TX/Weslaco H.S.) who finished out the final 1.1 innings of play, allowing one hit from the five batters he faced. The side-arm pitcher earned the save on the night while teammate Linder earned his first win of the new season.
The victories in day two of the UTPA Classic improve the Broncs to 2-0 on the season while the Sooners fall to 0-2 and the Bobcats split with a mark of 1-1.
The Broncs return to action on Sunday (Feb. 4) in day three of the UTPA Classic when they rematch the Sooners with the game slated for 12:00 p.m. followed by a match-up with the Bobcats at 5:00 p.m.
UTPA Sports Information
