MESA, Ariz. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team, the Southwest Division #3 seed, fell to the Sacramento State Hornets, the West Division #2 seed, 9-5 in a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament elimination game on Friday at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland A's.
Graduate student
Freddy Rojas Jr. led the Vaqueros (33-25) by going 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored. Graduate student
Jacob Hirsh went 2-for-4 with a home run, a triple, two RBI and one run scored. Junior
Brandon Pimentel finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI.
Rojas' home run came in the fourth to tie the game at 2. It was his 11
th home run of the season, tied with Hall of Famer
Joe Hernandez (1975) for the ninth-highest single-season total in program history.
It was Rojas' 21
st-career home run, tying
Jesse Gutierrez (2000) for second in program history, behind only Hall of Famer
Mitchell Moran (27, 1981-83).
Then, with the Vaqueros down 6-2 in the sixth, Rojas hit a leadoff single and scored on a two-out triple Hirsh against
Max Pettey (4-1).
The Vaqueros trailed 9-3 entering the ninth. With one out, Hirsh hit a home run. Then, after back-to-back singles, Pimentel hit a two-out RBI-single to make it a four-run game.
The Vaqueros initially scored in the third, when trailing 2-0, freshman Vela alum
Isaac Lopez singled, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on an RBI-single by Pimentel.
Pimentel finished the season with 89 hits, passing Moran (1983) for third in program history. He also broke a tie for second in total bases with 146.
The Hornets (32-25) got on the board against graduate student
Colten Davis (4-4) with two outs in the second on RBI-singles by
Josh Walker and
Josh Rolling.
The Hornets took a 4-2 lead in the fourth on RBI-singles by Walker and
Jorge Bojorquez and then a 6-2 lead in the fifth on an RBI-single by
Steven Moretto and a sacrifice fly by
Nick Iwasa.
Then, with the score 6-3 in the seventh, Moretto lifted a sacrifice fly to give the Hornets a 7-3 lead.
The Hornets tacked on two more runs with two outs in the eighth on a single by
Martin Vincelli-Simard.
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