BEAUMONT – Senior
Kevin Stevens upped his career strikeout total to 204 as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team beat the Lamar Cardinals 9-5 on Friday at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
The Vaqueros (28-19, 13-9 WAC) are now tied for second place in the Western Athletic Conference Southwest Division standings with the Cardinals (28-18, 13-9 WAC).
Stevens (7-2) struck out seven in 7.0 innings while becoming the eighth player in program history with at least 200 career strikeouts.
The Cardinals scored one of their two runs against Stevens in the third on a two-out double by
Matthew McDonald.
The Vaqueros tied the game against
Braxton Douthit (6-2) in the fourth on a two-out RBI-single by graduate student
Brett Cain.
The Vaqueros took a 2-1 lead in the fifth on a two-out RBI-single by junior
Brandon Pimentel.
The Vaqueros added a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by junior
Diego Ramirez.
The Vaqueros plated three more runs in the eighth on a Cain RBI-single, an RBI-groundout by junior
Chris Mondesi, and RBI-single by freshman Vela alum
Isaac Lopez.
A leadoff walk ended the night for Stevens in the eighth. Two batters later, McDonald hit a three-run home run. Two batters after that,
Josh Blankenship hit an RBI-double to make the score 6-5.
The Vaqueros responded by loading the bases with two outs in the ninth, setting up a three-run triple by Mondesi to make the score 9-5.
Mondesi finished a career-high tying 3-for-5 with a career-high tying four RBI. Cain finished 2-for-4 with two RBI. Lopez went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Pimentel went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Graduate student
Cameron Blake finished 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
UTRGV and Lamar play the middle game of this three-game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Fans can watch online at
WACSports.com/Watch.
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