EDINBURG – Sophomore Elijah Alexander hit a walk off two-run home run to lift The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley baseball team to a 5-4 victory over New Mexico State on Saturday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium to close out the season.
 
UTRGV (23-31, 8-16 WAC) entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-3 when junior Anthony Gomez hit a leadoff single to right center field. Alexander then took the first pitch he saw from Brock Whittlesey (3-4) over the left field wall for his fourth home run off the season and his second walk off hit of the season.
 
UTRGV got the scoring started in the bottom of the third inning against New Mexico State (36-19, 17-7 WAC) starter Alex Pinedo. Alexander got the offense started with a triple to left field before coming in to score on an RBI single by sophomore Coleman Grubbs. 
 
After an out and a walk to senior Ivan Estrella, freshman Zack Parks delivered an RBI single to center field scoring Grubbs from second for the 2-0 lead. 
 
Junior Trevelle Hill made that lead last as he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He finished with seven scoreless innings and gave up just one hit on the afternoon.
 
UTRGV pushed its lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single by senior Isaac Gonzalez that scored Grubbs, who led off the inning with a walk. 
 
In the top of the ninth, New Mexico State got a three-run triple from Nick Gonzales and then a throwing error on the play allowed him to score giving them the 4-3 lead and setting up the walk-off bottom of the ninth.
 
Freshman Max Balderama (2-0) earned the win after recording the final out of the top of the ninth.

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