BELLEVUE, Wash. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team opened Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play with a 4-3 loss to the Seattle U Redhawks on Friday at Bannerwood Park.
The Vaqueros (9-7, 0-1 WAC) got on the board against
Blake Smith (2-1) in the third. Junior
Hank Warren led off with a double down the right field line, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior PSJA North alum
Damian Rodriguez, and scored on a groundout by senior
Kade York to bring the Vaqueros within 2-1.
The Vaqueros added another run with two outs in the seventh when junior Sharyland alum
Martin Vazquez singled to bring home senior
Adrian Torres, making the score 4-2.
The Vaqueros loaded the bases with nobody out to knock out Smith in the eighth. One out later, graduate student
CJ Valdez grounded out to bring home Rodriguez, making the score 4-3.
Smith was credited with allowing five hits in 7.0 innings while striking out three and walking one.
Junior
Steven Lancia recorded the other two hits.
Cameron Dayton pitched 2.0 hitless innings of relief, striking out four, for his second save.
The Redhawks (5-11, 1-3 WAC) got on the board against senior
Tyler Valdez (1-2) right away on an RBI-single by
Sam Kane and a squeeze by
Grant Heiser to make the score 2-0 in the first.
Mateo Zeppieri added a 1-out RBI single to put the Redhawks up 3-1 in the third.
Heiser added a 2-out RBI-single in the fifth put the Redhawks up 4-1.
Junior
Aaron Sanchez pitched a career-high 4.0 innings of relief, striking out a career-high six while allowing one run on four hits and one walk.
Senior Vela alum
Nico Rodriguez struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Valdez pitched the first 3.0 innings, striking out four while allowing three runs on six hits and one walk.
UTRGV and Seattle U play the middle game of this 3-game series on Saturday at 4 p.m. Fans can watch via
WAC International.
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