RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team, which is receiving votes for the second week in a row in the
USA Today Coaches and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Polls, completed the two-game sweep of the Texas Southern Tigers 9-0 on Wicked Wednesday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 2,381.
The Vaqueros (16-3), the No. 6 team in the NCAA RPI, continue defying gravity by tying for the fifth-best start in program history and their best overall start since 1979, when they started a program record 17-1.
Junior Edinburg alum
Daren Barrera (1-0) earned his first-career win by striking out a career-high seven Tigers (8-14) in a career-high 6.0 innings. He threw 57 of his 79 pitches (72.15%) for strikes.
Sophomore
Easton Moomau led the Vaqueros offensively by going a career-high tying 3-for-3 with a walk, two RBI and a run scored. Senior
Steven Lancia went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Graduate student Vela alum
Isaac Lopez finished 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Freshman
Cameron Carter reached base in three of his four plate appearances with a single, walk, and hit by pitch while scoring twice. Carter has now reached base in eight of his last 10 plate appearances.
The Vaqueros plated four runs in the first against
Justin Mayes (0-3). Lopez and junior
Thomas Williams led off with walks. Moomau followed with an RBI-single and then Lancia singled to load the bases. One out later, graduate student PSJA alum
Jacob Sanchez walked to force-in a run. A pickoff throw by catcher
Elijah Rodriguez hit off the glove of third baseman
Jonathan Trejo, allowing all of the runners to advance. Junior
Rene Galván followed with an RBI-groundout to make the score 4-0.
In the second, Williams drew a two-out walk, stole second, and scored on a Moomau single to make the score 5-0.
Carter and Lopez led off the fourth with singles, the second of which moved Carter to third. He then scored on a Williams sacrifice fly to make the score 6-0.
In the sixth, the Vaqueros put runners on the corners with two outs, setting up a double steal with Carter swiping home and Lopez taking second to make the score 7-0.
Lancia led off the seventh with a single. Junior pinch-runner
Damien Whitfield moved to second on a balk. He then stole third and scored when the throw went into left field. With one out, Sanchez singled and Galván doubled, allowing senior
Hank Warren to hit an RBI-single to put the Vaqueros up 9-0.
UTRGV hosts Houston Christian for a three-game Southland Conference series starting Friday at 6:30 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. UTRGV and legacy institution alumni are invited to come to a mixer starting at 5:30 p.m. in the cantina. The 2025 Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor induction class will throw out ceremonial first pitches.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased 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. Fans can find a full list of game day information at
RallyTheValley.com. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
Fans can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
Southland International.
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