EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball dropped the first game of a doubleheader to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 6-3 on Tuesday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
 
Islanders (6-8) starter Chris Falwell (1-0) retired the first seven Vaqueros (7-9) he faced, but one out after plunking junior Victor Garcia Jr., who stole second, junior Joseph Collazo singled up the middle to make it 1-0. Junior Jose Garcia followed with an RBI-double to make it 2-0.
 
Jose Garcia finished 2-for-4.
 
That was it against Falwell, who struck out two without walking anyone in four innings.
 
Devin Skapura took over for the next 3.2 innings, keeping the Vaqueros off the board until there was two outs in the eighth when senior Cole Loncar singled home Collazo to bring the Vaqueros within 6-3.
 
The Islanders had three-straight singles to start the game against junior Austin Kufrovich (0-2) while jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Kufrovich settled down to keep the Islanders off the board until the fifth, but Zacarias Hardy hit a one-out grand slam to give the Islanders the lead.
 
The Vaqueros bullpen took over from there, as senior Parker Gallegos, sophomore George Lamb and senior Matt Rigby pitched 4.2 perfect innings of relief, striking out three.
 
The Vaqueros and Islanders play game two of this doubleheader at approximately 5:40.

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