SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA Roadrunners, who are receiving votes in the latest NCBWA poll, entered Tuesday's game against The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team on a 10-game home winning streak, averaging 10.5 runs per game over that span.
Junior
J.C. Ariza (2-1) took care of that.
Ariza pitched a season-high tying 6.0 innings of two-hit, shutout ball and the offense belted a program-record tying six home runs to send the Vaqueros (27-18) to a 12-1 victory at Roadrunner Field.
The Vaqueros have now won four-straight games.
The six home runs are tied for the most the Vaqueros have ever hit in a road game.
This is the first time the Roadrunners (30-15) have been held to less than three runs at home and only their fourth home loss in 22 games this season. This is the first time the Roadrunners have been held to one run at home since April 1, 2021 in a 9-1 loss to Southern Miss. The Vaqueros handed the Roadrunners their most lopsided home loss since Feb. 15, 2019, a 16-5 loss to McNeese.
Ariza set the tone early, striking out five over the first two innings. One of the hits came in the first and the other came leading off the second. After that second hit, Ariza retired 14-straight batters.
Ryan Flores drew a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch in the sixth.
Ian Bailey followed with a deep drive to center, but graduate student
Brett Cain made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Bailey of a home run and end the inning.
Offensively, Cain drew a career-high three walks, scoring twice.
The Vaqueros scored early and often. In the first, graduate student
Freddy Rojas Jr. hit a two-out RBI-single against
Ryan Beaird (2-4) to make the score 1-0.
Junior
Brandon Pimentel, who scored on that play, launched his 11
th home run of the season in the third to make the score 2-0.
Pimentel is now tied for eighth in program history with Hall of Famer
Joe Hernandez (1975) for home runs in a season. Next up are
Andy Ness (1999),
Rafael Barbosa (1983), and
Bobby Joe Williams (1983), who all hit 12 home runs.
Graduate student
Bryan Sturges, who played at UTSA from 2019-20, hit his first of two home runs in the fifth, a two-run shot.
Junior
Chris Mondesi followed with his second home run to make the score 5-0 in the sixth.
With two outs in the seventh, Sturges hit an RBI-double and Rojas hit an RBI-single to extend the Vaqueros' lead to 7-0.
Junior
Diego Escobedo struck out two in a perfect bottom of the seventh inning.
The Roadrunners pushed across their run in the eighth on a one-out double by
Jonathan Tapia.
The Vaqueros responded with five runs in the ninth on solo shot by sophomore PSJA alum
Jacob Sanchez, his fifth, a solo shot by Sturges, his seventh, and a three-run shot by freshman Vela alum
Isaac Lopez, hit second. The three RBI are a career-high for Lopez.
Sturges posted his second multi-home run game, going 3-for-4 with a walk, four RBI and three runs scored. Pimentel went 2-for-6 with an RBI and two runs scored. Rojas finished 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI.
Graduate student
Max Balderrama Jr. pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the game.
UTRGV closes out non-conference play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Fans can watch online via the
Islanders Digital Network.
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