RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team, the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament which is receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls for the 10
th week in a row, fell to the No. 6 Houston Christian University Huskies 9-6 in the semifinals of bracket play, presented by Payne Auto Group, on Friday in front of a crowd of 3,381, the program's 21
st largest crowd since moving into UTRGV Baseball Stadium in 2002 and 10
th largest of the season.
UTRGV will play an elimination game Saturday at 1 p.m. against No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which knocked out No. 3 Lamar 12-5 earlier on Friday. The winner of that game will face HCU at 6 p.m.
UTRGV needs to win both games to force a decisive final game of bracket play against HCU on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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.
Down 7-0 early, the Vaqueros (35-17) got on the board against
Joshua Caravalho (9-3) in the fifth on an RBI-single by graduate student PSJA alum
Jacob Sanchez.
In the sixth, the Vaqueros sent 10 batters to the plate to score five runs. Junior
Thomas Williams led off with a walk and moved to third on two wild pitches before scoring on an RBI-single by freshman
Cameron Carter. Two batters later, with runners at first and second, graduate student Vela alum
Isaac Lopez and sophomore
Armani Raygoza hit RBI-singles. Sanchez singled to load the bases, setting up an RBI-fielder's choice by sophomore
Easton Moomau and an RBI-single by senior
Steven Lancia to bring the Vaqueros within 7-6.
Sanchez and Moomau each finished 2-for-4. Each reached three times, as Moomau added a walk while Sanchez was plunked.
Graduate student
Jack Lopez was strong in relief for the Vaqueros, starting his outing with 4.2 hitless innings, striking out a career-high tying five.
Lopez entered in the third with the Vaqueros down 7-0 and held the Huskies (29-23) offense in check until there were two outs in the seventh, at which point the Vaqueros were within 7-6. That's when
Katcher Halligan doubled, and
Graham Laxton and
Jeremy Rader walked to load the bases.
Trevor Roper hit a grounder to first, but the throw got away, allowing two runs to score to put the Huskies up 9-6.
Ben North pitched 1.1 scoreless innings for his eighth save.
The Huskies scored seven runs against senior
Jacob Limas (2-3) in the second. Two of the first three hitters singled, leading to three-straight RBI-singles by Roper,
Kenneth Dutka, and
Tevis Payne.
Jack Walker followed with an RBI-double and then
Rhett Hendricks hit an RBI-single to knock out Limas. One out later, Halligan capped the inning with an RBI-single to make the score 7-0.
UTRGV extends its program record season attendance to 79,761 across 25 dates, an average of 3,190 per date.
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