Box Score

EDINBURG – The University of Texas-Pan American Broncs baseball team scored five runs in the eighth inning to come from behind and beat the Lamar University Cardinals 5-2 on Friday at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.
 
Four of the first five Broncs (6-3) batters walked to open the eighth, with the first two coming against Joe Farley and the last two against Galen Andrews (1-1). The fourth walk, by sophomore Jacob Huckabay, forced-in the Broncs' first run. After Andrew threw ball one to senior Logan Landon, Enrique Oquendo came in and allowed a go-ahead two-run double. Freshman McAllen Memorial alum Manny Loredo followed with a two-run single to complete the scoring.
 
That made a winner of freshman Johnny Gonzalez (1-0), who recorded a pair of groundouts to end the top of the eighth.
 
Sophomore Nikki Rowe alum Andrew Padron worked a hitless ninth for his fourth save. Padron now has six career saves, tied for the ninth highest total in program history.
 
Senior pitcher Blake English started for the Broncs, notching a career-high 10 strikeouts in 7.1 innings while scattering three hits and three walks. He only allowed one base runner over the first five innings, retiring the first six batters he faced, and then, after allowing a leadoff single in the third, retiring the next nine in a row. Seven of his strikeouts came in the first four innings.
 
In the sixth, however, the Cardinals (6-3) loaded the bases with one out and Brandon Provost walked to force-in a run.
 
English bounced back to get a double play and then struck out two in a perfect seventh, but one out after walking the leadoff man in the eighth, English was pulled in favor of junior Brandon San Nicolas, who threw a wild pitch before allowing an RBI-single to Stijn van der Meer to make it 2-0. After a walk, Gonzalez came in to escape the jam.
 
Danny Fernandez started for the Cardinals, striking out six while scattering five hits and one walk over 6.1 innings.
 
The Broncs had their best opportunity to score against Fernandez in the seventh, when Landon doubled and Loredo singled to put runners on the corners with one out, but Kyle Leggett came in out of the bullpen to strikeout junior Correy Davis and get junior Scott Mercer to groundout to escape the threat.
 
The Broncs and Cardinals play game two of this three-game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Gates open at 1.

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