April 28, 2009
After recovering from a six-hour road trip this past weekend, the Broncs returned to Edinburg Baseball Stadium where they suffered a 12-7 loss to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders this Tuesday (April 28) afternoon at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.
"With 14 hits, it should have been good enough to win, but we came up short," said head coach Manny Mantrana. "We met our goal in hits but when you don't have pitching and your defense isn't solid, it makes it that much harder to notch a win."
In three frames of work, the Broncs scored six runs in the second, third and fourth to trail the Islanders 9-6 heading into the bottom of the seventh.
The Broncs recorded a four-run second as UTPA posted runs from Garrett Bivone, Iradier Hernandez, Nick Spears and Jose Mendoza.
With Nick Spears at the plate and runners on second and third, Garrett Bivone scored the first run for the Broncs on a wild pitch. Spears then drove in Hernandez on a RBI single to left.
Jose Mendoza drove in Spears for the third run after reaching on an error by the shortstop. Then with two outs on the board, Abraham Garcia drove in Mendoza on a single up the middle.
UTPA scored single runs in the third and fourth with the lone run in the third coming off a homerun from leadoff batter Andrew Perez, which marks Perez's second homerun of the season, the first coming this past weekend in the rubber match against Prairie View.
The Broncs scored another lone run in the fourth on a RBI single by Bonham Hough allowing Mendoza to record his second run of the evening.
The Broncs allowed the Islanders to score seven runs in the first three inning of play before scoring a single run in the bottom of the seventh.
The Islanders struggled to retire the bottom of the seventh as the Islanders went through two pitching changes. Justin Grota started the seventh and faced three batters before being pulled, placing Jake Liedka on the mound. After scoring one and loading the bases, Liedka was pulled and Phillip Garcia took to the mound. Garcia was able to retire the inning.
Both ball clubs remained scoreless up until the top of the ninth where the Broncs struggled and gave up three bombs to left field, which would conclude the ballgame. The Islanders recorded homeruns from Ernie Olivarez, his first of the season, Jacob Perales and Jeremy Narvaez, his first of the season as well.
Along with his opening run of the contest, Garrett Bivone added a 4-for-5 plate appearance while driving in a run. Abraham Garcia added a 3-for-4 plate appearance for the Broncs along with a run, RBI and a double. Scott Wingo was tagged with the loss in four innings pitched with three strikeouts and one walk.
The Broncs will have almost a two-week break before hitting the road to Greeley, Colorado where they will face Northern Colorado on May 10 in a double-header; first pitch slated for 12 noon.
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