RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Junior Sharyland alum
Martin Vazquez hit a pair of no-doubt home runs to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team past the UT Arlington Mavericks 8-2 on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 2,044.
In his first-career multi-home run game, Vazquez hit a laser-liner 2-run shot over the left field wall in the third before belting a towering solo shot into the Vaqueros Performance Center construction site in the seventh.
Vazquez now has 10 home runs this season, tied for the 12
th-highest single-season total in program history with
Andy Atwood (2021),
George Williams (1991), and
Tommy Supak (1980).
Vazquez finished a career-high tying 3-for-4 with a career-high tying three RBI and two runs scored. Junior
Steven Lancia went 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, an RBI, and two runs scored. Junior
Erick Martinez finished a career-high tying 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Junior Vela alum
Isaac Lopez went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Lancia's home run tied the game at 1 in the second.
The Vaqueros (15-12, 5-5 WAC) scored three runs in the fourth on a squeeze by junior
Hank Warren, a Martinez RBI-double, and an RBI-single by senior
Adrian Torres to make the score 6-1.
After Vazquez's home run in the seventh, Lancia doubled and freshman PSJA alum
Julius Ramirez came up with his first-career hit, a pinch-hit RBI-single to make the score 8-1.
Graduate student
Isiah Campa (2-0) made the runs stand up, pitching a career-high 6.1 innings of 2-hit ball. He retired the nine of the final 11 batters he faced, finishing with a career-high tying six strikeouts. He walked just two while throwing 64 of his 99 pitches (64.6%) for strikes.
The Mavericks' (13-17, 8-5 WAC) run came in the second, when
Ryan Ellis led off with a double and scored on a 1-out single by
JD Moreno to make the score 1-0.
Senior Vela alum
Nico Rodriguez pitched 1.2 perfect innings of relief, striking out two.
The Mavericks added a run in the ninth on a 1-out RBI-single by Ellis.
UTRGV and UT Arlington play the middle game of this 3-game series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. It's 956 Night. The first 1,956 fans through the gates will receive Puro 956 t-shirts. There will be best decorated sombrero and grito contests. Fans must bring their own sombreros. The top three sombreros and the top grito winners receive gift cards to Vaquero Outfitters
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at
GoUTRGV.com/Tickets. 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 can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
WAC International.
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