Box Score

EDINBURG, Texas – Colby McCasland struck out a career-high 11 in a career-high eight innings of work to lead the University of Texas-Pan American Broncs baseball team to an 11-1 win over the New York Institute of Technology Bears in the Great West Conference opener on Thursday at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.
 
The game ended during the bottom of the eighth inning due to the 10-run mercy rule. This is the sixth time this season that the Broncs (13-6, 1-0 GWC) have won by the mercy rule.
 
McCasland (3-0) struck out one in each of the first four innings and then struck out the side in the fifth. He struck out one in the sixth and one in the seventh before striking out two in the eighth to finish up his second complete game of the season. McCasland threw 80 of his 134 pitches for strikes (59.7%).
 
The only blemish against McCasland came in the sixth when Ali Rodriguez, who went 3-for-3, hit his first home run of the season.
 
Up 1-0 after the first, the Broncs sent 11 batters to the plate to score five runs in the second and take a 6-0 lead. With one out, Mike McCarthy doubled and then Bears (2-16, 0-1 GWC) starter John Duggan (1-3) walked three-straight batters to force in a run. Duggan regained the strike zone against Derek Hagy, but after three-straight foul balls with a 1-2 count, Hagy hit an RBI-single. Roger Bernal followed with a two-run double. One out later, Vincent Mejia and Angel Ibanez drew walks to force in a run, knock out Duggan and cap the inning.
 
Bernal went 2-for-5. His NCAA-leading batting average now stands at .488 (40-82).
 
The Broncs added two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
 
The Broncs drew a season-high 11 walks. Five of those runners scored.
 
The Broncs and Bears continue this four-game series with a doubleheader on Friday at 3:00 p.m. at Edinburg Baseball Stadium. Game one is scheduled to last seven innings while game two will go the full nine. Gates open at 2:00.
 
The University of Texas-Pan American Department of Intercollegiate Athletics competes at the NCAA Division I classification. UTPA, formerly known as Pan American College and Pan American University, is a part of the University of Texas System of Schools. The Broncs compete in 14 varsity sports; men's and women's basketball, golf, tennis, track and field, and cross country, along with women's volleyball and men's baseball. In 1963, then known as Pan American College, the Broncs men's basketball program won the NAIA National Championship with a 73-62 victory over Western Carolina. In 2008 UTPA joined the new all-sports division of the Great West Conference.