HAMMOND, La. – Three pitchers for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team, which is receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls for the sixth week in a row, dropped game one 5-2 to the Southeastern (SLU) Lions on Thursday at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
 
The Vaqueros (25-12, 16-6 Southland Conference) were held to scoreless for the first six innings. In the seventh, though, senior Steven Lancia cut the lead to 2-1 with a solo home run launched into left center. This shot was Lancia's third home run of the season and 14^th of his career.
 
In the eighth, freshman Cameron Carter led off with a single and then sophomore Armani Raygoza and senior Jacob Sanchez reached on walks to load the bases with one out. Sophomore Easton Moomau hit a bases loaded sacrifice fly to left center to score Carter.

Junior Kike Cienfuegos shined in relief as he kept the Lions offense at bay by pitching 4.0 hitless and scoreless innings while striking out five.
 
The Lions (30-8, 15-4 SLC) loaded the bases with nobody out in the third and capitalized on a couple sacrifice flies from first baseman Ryan Brome and catcher Conner O'Neal to score the first two runs of the game against junior Nick Nolan to take the 2-0 lead.
 
With the game knotted at 2 in the eighth, the Lions took advantage of the long ball to score three runs against junior Steven Oliva (0-2) to push the game out of reach. Southeastern's Brennan Sturpich (8-2) earned the win while Brady St. Pierre picked up the save (7).
 
UTRGV will continue the crucial three-game series at Southeastern on Friday at 6 p.m. Southeastern entered the weekend as one of three teams tied for first place in the Southland Conference.
 
Fans can watch domestically on ESPN+ or internationally via Southland International.

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