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OREM, Utah – The second-seeded University of Texas-Pan American Broncs baseball team beat the seventh-seeded Chicago State University Cougars 10-4 in the opening game of the Great West Conference Tournament on Tuesday at Brent Brown Ballpark on the campus of Utah Valley University.
 
The Broncs (30-20) took advantage of two-out opportunities to build their lead.
 
Down 2-0 after the first, the Broncs put two on with one out in the second to set-up an RBI-single by Derek Hagy.
 
With two outs in the third, Mike McCarthy walked, Mission-native Iradier Hernandez singled and Riley Goulding hit an RBI-single to tie the game.
 
In the fourth, Mission-native Angel Ibanez hit a two-out two-run home, his third of the season, to give the Broncs a 4-2 lead.
 
The Cougars (12-39) got a run back in the top of the sixth, but with two outs in the bottom of the inning, Roger Bernal was hit by a pitch and stole second. That led to an intentional walk of Ibanez. Vincent Mejia followed with an RBI-single to make it 5-3.
 
With two on and one out in the seventh, Shane Klemcke hit an RBI-single to knock out Andrew Wellwerts (1-5). Hagy followed with a two-run single, and then after an infield-single by Bernal, Ibanez hit a two-run single to make it 10-3.
 
Bernal, Hernandez and Goulding all finished with three hits.
 
That made a winner of Jonathan Sa (5-2), who allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits in six innings. He struck out five while walking five.
 
The Broncs return to action on Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. CT when they face sixth-seeded North Dakota.
 
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.