RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team opened Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play with a 6-3 loss to the California Baptist University Lancers on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 1,639.
The Lancers (7-6, 1-0 WAC) scored immediately, as
Julian Alvarez singled and
Garret Ostrander doubled to start the game. Graduate student
Jesus Aldaz (2-1) responded by retiring the next 15 batters he faced, striking out six.
The Vaqueros (8-5, 0-1 WAC) tied the game in the second as senior Vela alum
RJ Ochoa drew a leadoff walk from
Liam Rocha (2-0), moved to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a single by graduate student
Montclair Cain, who finished 2-for-3 with a walk. Two other Vaqueros had multi-hit games, as sophomore
Steven Lancia and senior
Roberto Gonzalez each finished 2-for-4.
That's where the score stayed until the fifth, when sophomore Vela alum
Isaac Lopez blasted his career-high fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot, to give the Vaqueros a 3-1 lead.
In the sixth, the Lancers broke through against Aldaz, putting runners at second and third with two outs. A wild pitched scored a run and then
Mitchel Simon hit an RBI-double and
Jake Skipworth hit an RBI-single. After a walk,
Josiah Chavez came up with a pinch-hit RBI-single to cap the inning with the Lancers up 5-3.
The Lancers added a run in the eighth on a two-out RBI-single by
Josh Paino.
Brandon Downer pitched 4.0 scoreless innings of relief for his first save.
The Vaqueros and Lancers play the middle game of this three-game series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The first 500 fans in attendance get free UTRGV t-shirts. Tickets are on sale now at
UTRGVTickets.com. Current UTRGV students receive free general admission with their student ID. All fans need to follow the clear bag policy, details of which can be found at
GoUTRGV.com/ClearBag. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
Fans unable to attend in person can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
WAC International.
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