RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team fell to the Sacramento State Hornets 7-2 on Thursday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 1,868.
UTRGV improves upon its single-season program attendance, now at 53,367.
UTRGV is averaging 2,053 fans across 26 home dates. If that average holds, UTRGV will break the current program record of 1,920 fans per date set across 20 dates in 1972.
The Vaqueros (25-24, 13-15 WAC) scored their runs in the eighth. Graduate students
CJ Valdez and
Adrian Torres led off with singles. One out later, with runners at the corners, junior Vela alum
Isaac Lopez hit into a fielder's choice to bring home Valdez. Freshman
Evan Janner followed with a pinch-hit RBI-double to make the score 6-2.
Graduate student
Isiah Campa (2-1) made a spot start for the Vaqueros and pitched well, striking out four while allowing two runs on five hits and two walks in 4.2 innings.
The Hornets (26-28, 14-14 WAC) got their first run in the second.
Elie Kligman drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on an error, and scored on a
Tyler White groundout.
In the fourth, Kligman led off with a triple and scored on a 1-out single by
Jorge Bojorquez to make the score 2-0.
The Hornets threatened again in the fifth with two on and nobody out, but Campa ended his outing by getting a double play and then junior
Jack Lopez got a strikeout to end the inning.
Lopez struck out three of the four batters he faced in a perfect inning and a third of relief.
The Hornets added four runs in the seventh on a 2-run home run by
Ryan Christiansen and a 2-run double by
JP Smith.
Christiansen added a solo shot in the ninth.
That made a winner of
Tyler Stewart (5-4), who struck out three while walking one in 2.0 hitless innings of relief.
UTRGV and Sacramento State play the middle game of this 3-game series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. There will be postgame fireworks presented by G3 Scrap Metal and Vaquero Outfitters. The game also features the Cane's Challenge. If the Vaqueros win, all fans in the stadium will receive coupons for buy one, get one free box combos at Raising Cane's on their way out.
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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