RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team clinched a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament with a 4-3, 10-inning win over the UIW Cardinals on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in front of a crowd of 5,548, the ninth-largest in program history.
The game was tied at 2 entering the ninth. That's when the Cardinals (18-25, 8-17 SLC) loaded the bases with two outs against graduate student
Colton Vercoe (4-4), who walked
Trent Rucker to force-in the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the ninth, though, graduate student Vela alum
Rudy Gonzalez reached on an error and junior
Rocco Garza Gongora doubled against
Chase Blease (2-3) to put runners at second and third. Senior
Thomas Williams followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
In the 10
th, junior
Easton Moomau led off with an infield single and graduate student PSJA alum
Diego Villescas hit a ground-rule double. Junior
Evan Janner followed with a walk-off RBI single.
Garza Gongora led the Vaqueros (22-25, 15-13 SLC) offensively by going 2-for-5 with a home run and a double. Moomau extended his hitting streak to 18 games by going 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Senior
Hank Warren finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.
The game was scoreless until the fourth, when the Vaqueros loaded the bases with one out, setting up a Warren RBI-single to make the score 1-0.
Tony DeJesus hit a two-run home run with two outs in the top of the fifth to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, though, Garza Gongora launched a 397' home run to right, his fifth of the season, to tie the game.
UTRGV and UIW play the middle game of the series Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in a game presented by Bert Ogden Auto Group. Fans will receive sunglasses while supplies last. The first 1,000 fans will also receive souvenir cups, courtesy of Chartwells.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at
UTRGVTickets.com. Current UTRGV students receive free general admission with a digital ticket that can be acquired at
GoUTRGV.com/StudentTickets while also showing their student ID. Fans can learn more about game day, including parking information, maps, and the clear bag policy, by visiting
RallyTheValley.com.
Fans can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
Southland International.
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