RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team combined for four home runs but fell to the Sam Houston Bearkats, a team receiving votes in the latest NCBWA poll, 15-11 in the final home game of the season on Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 1,439.
This is the third time the Vaqueros (30-22, 15-12 WAC) have hit at least four home runs in a game this season and the second time at home.
The Vaqueros scored their first run in the first when junior
Brandon Pimentel hit a solo home run down the left field line.
Pimentel now has 12 home runs, tied for the fifth-highest single-season total in program history with
Andy Ness(1999),
Rafael Barbosa (1983) and
Bobby Joe Williams (1983). Next on the list are
Dale Brown (1981) and
Robert Johnson (1980), who each hit 14.
Down 7-1 in the third, junior
Raul Ortega hit a leadoff double and scored on a single by freshman Vela alum
Isaac Lopez.
Then, down 10-2 in the seventh, graduate student
Freddy Rojas Jr. launched a two-run home run into the right-center field corrals, his 10
th of the season, junior
Chris Mondesi followed with a no doubt shot to left, his third of the season, and then
Cameron Blake hit a two-out solo home run to left, his fourth of the season, to make the score 10-6.
Rojas is now tied for 10
th for single-season home runs with
Andy Atwood (2021),
George Williams (1991) and
Tommy Supak (1980).
Rojas now has 20-career home runs, breaking a tie for the third-highest total in program history, behind only Hall of Famer
Mitchell Moran (27, 1981-83) and
Jesse Gutierrez (21, 2000).
The Vaqueros tied the game at 10 with four more runs in the eighth, as with the bases loaded and two outs, Ortega drew an RBI-walk from
Lance Lusk (4-0) and then Lopez hit a bases-clearing double.
Lopez finished 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBI.
In the ninth, though, the Bearkats (29-21, 19-8 WAC) loaded the bases with two outs against sophomore
Zach Tjelmeland (1-1), setting up a go-ahead walk by
Walker Janek, a two-run single by
Easton Loyd, and a two-run double by
Myles Jefferson.
In the bottom of the inning, the Vaqueros loaded the bases with one out to knock out Lusk.
Braden Davis came in and allowed an RBI-groundout to Rojas before getting a fly out to end the game and record his first save.
The Bearkats put up seven runs in the second, six of them with two outs. With two on and one out, Jefferson hit an RBI-single. Two batters later, with the bases loaded,
Lane Brewster hit a bases-clearing double. Two batters after that, with the bases loaded again,
Carlos Contreras hit a three-run double to cap the inning with the score 7-1.
The Bearkats added three runs in the sixth. After the first two batters walked, Contreras hit an RBI-single, Janek hit an RBI-double and Loyd hit an RBI-single to make the score 10-2.
UTRGV closes out the regular season with a three-game series at Stephen F. Austin starting Thursday at 6:30 p.m.Fans can watch in the United States on
ESPN+ or internationally at
WACSports.com/Watch.
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