EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team hit a season-high three home runs to beat defending Western Athletic Conference Champion Seattle U 12-9 on Saturday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium and take two out of three in the series.
It was UTRGV's (20-19, 4-8 WAC) first three-home run game since March 8, 2013 at Wichita State.
The home runs were solo shots from senior
Jose Garcia in the first and senior
Joseph Collazo in the second as well as a two-run blast by junior
Austin Siener in the third.
Garcia finished 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored while Collazo went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored.
UTRGV scored an additional run in the third on a wild pitch by
Lucas Chapman (1-1).
Seattle U (12-21-1, 4-8 WAC) broke through against
Andrew Garcia (4-2) in the sixth on a home run by
Aaron Stroosma.
UTRGV got that run back in the bottom of the inning on a suicide squeeze by sophomore
Anthony Gomez that made it 6-1.
In the seventh, though, Seattle U plated three runs (one earned) on an
Austin Lively sacrifice fly, an error and a bases loaded walk by
Griffin Andreychuck to make it 6-4.
UTRGV added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI-single by junior
Cris Castillo and a wild pitch that scored Castillo later in the inning.
Seattle U scored again in the eighth on a home run by
Michael Ciancio that made it 8-5, but UTRGV put the game away in the bottom of the inning on an RBI-single by junior
Noah Lee, an error, a Castillo sacrifice fly and a Siener fielder's choice.
Lee finished 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and a career-high tying three runs scored.
Seattle U scored four times in the ninth on a wild pitch, an error, a
Jake Taylor single and a Lively infield-single, but junior
George Lamb recorded the final out for his first save.
UTRGV plays its next five games on the road starting Tuesday at 6 p.m. when it visits Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union.
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