ABILENE – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball dropped the middle game of their three-game series with the Abilene Christian Wildcats 8-6 on Saturday at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Vaqueros (22-20, 11-12 WAC) were led by graduate student
CJ Valdez, who went 3-for-5 with a home run. Junior Sharyland alum
Martin Vazquez, senior
Adrian Torres, and senior PSJA North alum
Damian Rodriguez each added two hits and an RBI.
The Wildcats (28-19, 15-8 WAC) got on the board in the bottom of the second when they recorded seven-straight hits scoring five runs in the inning for the 5-0 lead.
The Vaqueros got on the board in the top of the third. After two quick outs to start the inning, Rodriguez reached on a single and then back-to-back walks to senior
Kade York and freshman
Easton Moomau loaded the bases for Vazquez, who walked to make it 5-1.
Abilene Christian added a couple in the bottom of the third with a solo home run by
Aaron Staehely and then got an RBI single later in the inningn from
Gino D'Alessio to push their lead to 7-1.
UTRGV cut into Abilene Christian's lead in the top of the eighth. With runners at second and third, Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to left that allowed Valdez to score. York followed with an RBI triple that scored
Torres from second and Moomau capped the scoring in the inning with an RBI single scoring York to make it 7-4 ACU.
The Wildcats added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out RBI single by Maddox Miesse for an 8-4 lead.
The Vaqueros didn't go quietly in the ninth against
Brett Garcia as they got back-to-back home runs from Valdez and Torres to get within 8-6 but Garcia got the final two outs to close out the game.
The Vaqueros and Wildcats will wrap up the series on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Fans can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
WAC International.
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