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EDINBURG – Senior Jose Garcia hit a walk-off single in the ninth to send The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team to a 10-9 victory over Chicago State University (CSU) on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
 
Freshman Tyler Torres led off the ninth with a four-pitch walk against Zach Thomas (1-2). Sophomore Conrad McMahon followed by reaching on an error. Garcia came up and showed bunt before pulling back to serve the game-winning hit into left.
 
That made a winner of graduate student Connor Grant (6-6), who pitched out of a runners on the corner, no outs jam in the top of the inning without allowing a run.
 
McMahon led UTRGV (23-22, 5-11 WAC) with his second-straight three-hit game, scoring a career-high tying three runs. Senior Joseph Collazo finsihed 2-for-4 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored. Junior Ivan Estrella drove-in a career-high tying five runs while going 2-for-4. Estrella and senior Victor Garcia Jr. each hit triples, giving UTRGV 16 for the season, its highest total since 2010, when the team hit 17 triples.
 
Three different CSU (9-29, 5-8 WAC) players finished with three RBI, including Matt Paciello, who also walked three times, Cody Freund, and Jacob Northrup, who finished 2-for-4 with a walk. Julian Russell also had a multi-hit game, going 3-for-5 with a walk and two runs scored.
 
Paciello drove-in all of his runs with a home run in the third that put CSU up 5-1. Estrella responded with a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-4.
 
In the fifth, sophomore Anthony Gomez hit his first-career home run to tie the game. Junior Noah Lee followed with a walk, setting up an RBI-triple by Garcia to put UTRGV up 6-5.
 
With one out in the sixth, CSU loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman, setting up a bases-clearing two-out double by Northrup to give CSU an 8-6 lead.
 
UTRGV got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Collazo single, but CSU pushed across another run in the seventh ro restore its two-run advantage.
 
CSU started the scoring in the first on a Freund two-run single.
 
UTRGV cut the deficit to 2-1 when McMahon stole third and scored when the throw went into left field.
 
UTRGV and CSU face-off again on Saturday at 6 p.m. in a game will be televised throughout Texas on Spectrum Sports Alt. channel 825. Gates open at 5.

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