RIO GRANDE VALLEY – 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 10
th week in a row, scored five unanswered runs to come from behind and beat the Texas State Bobcats 11-9 on Tuesday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 6,189, the fourth largest in program history and third largest this season.
UTRGV extends its program record season attendance to 73,165 across 23 dates, an average of 3,181 per date.
UTRGV entered the game ranked 37
th in the NCAA RPI. Texas State entered ranked 83
rd.
The Vaqueros (34-16) trailed 9-6 entering the bottom of the sixth. Senior
Steven Lancia drew a leadoff walk and scored on a two-out triple by sophomore
Evan Janner to make the score 9-7.
Sophomore
Armani Raygoza led off the seventh with a walk and scored on a fielder's choice by junior
Thomas Williams to bring the Vaqueros within 9-8.
In the eighth, Janner drew a leadoff walk. One out later, graduate student Vela alum
Isaac Lopez walked. Raygoza followed with a game-tying single. One batter later, with runners at second and third and two outs, sophomore
Easton Moomau hit a grounder to shortstop that
Ryne Farber couldn't handle, allowing two runs to score to give the Vaqueros an 11-9 lead.
That made a winner of senior
Anthony Tejada (3-1), who struck out a season-high five in a career-high 3.0 scoreless innings.
Raygoza finished 3-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and two runs scored. Moomau went 2-for-5 with a grand slam for a career-high four RBI. Janner finished 2-for-3 with a double, a triple, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored.
Moomau hit his grand slam in the first inning to put the Vaqueros up 4-2.
Junior
Rene Galván belted a 2-run home run in the fourth to put the Vaqueros up 6-2.
The Bobcats (25-27), however, scored seven runs over the next two innings to regain the lead.
In the fifth,
Alan Shibley led off with a home run and
Dawson Park hit a two-out, 2-run single to bring the Bobcats within 6-5.
In the sixth, the Bobcats loaded the bases with nobody out, setting up a 3-run double by
Chase Mora. After a groundout moved Mora to third,
Austin Munguia hit a sacrifice fly to put the Bobcats up 9-6.
The Bobcats took a 2-0 lead in the first on a 2-run home run by Munguia.
No. 2 UTRGV opens Southland Conference Tournament Bracket Play, presented by Payne Auto Group, against No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 6 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. No. 3 Lamar faces No. 6 Houston Christian University at 1 p.m.
All-tournament and single-session passes are on sale now and can be purchased at
UTRGVTickets.com. Current students of the participating Southland institutions 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 12 p.m.
Fans can watch all games domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
Southland International.
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