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EDINBURG – Junior Carter Johnson struck out 13 in nine innings of two-hit ball to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) baseball team to a 6-1 victory over Prairie View A&M (PVAM) to open the Al Ogletree Classic on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
 
Johnson (2-0) retired the first 12 batters he faced with seven strikeouts, three groundouts and two flyouts. Johnson struck out the final batter of the the third and the side in the fourth.
 
In the fourth, Johnson got ahead of Cody Den Beste 0-2, but after a foul ball, Den Beste tripled down the right field line. Anthony Fernandez followed with a sacrifice fly to give PVAM (1-5) its run, and other than a single in the sixth, Johnson was perfect the rest of the way.
 
Johnson had 1-2-3 innings in each of the first four and last three frames. In total, Johnson retired the final 11 batters he faced. He threw 82 of his 110 pitches (74.5 percent) for strikes.
 
UTRGV (5-0) got all the runs it needed in the first on an error and a sacrifice fly by junior Ivan Estrella.
 
Sophomore Conrad McMahon drove in a run with a single in the second to make it 3-0.
 
Then, with the score 3-1 in the sixth, UTRGV put runners at second and third with two outs, setting up a two-run single by senior Jose Garcia and an RBI-single by Joseph Collazo to knock out Andreus Faltesek (0-2).
 
Estrella, Garcia and McMahon each finished with two hits.
 
UTRGV and Prairie View A&M continue this four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m. Gates open at 11 a.m.

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