STEPHENVILLE – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team fell to the Tarleton State Texans 10-8 on Saturday at Tarleton State Baseball Complex.
Making his first start in left field, junior
Andrew Taylor led the Vaqueros (25-27) offensively by going 2-for-2 with his first double, a walk, two RBI, and a career-high tying two runs scored. Junior
Chayton Fischer finished a career-high tying 2-for-4 with a double and a career-high tying two runs scored. Graduate student PSJA alum
Diego Villescas went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
With one out in the second, Fischer singled and Taylor doubled. Senior
Hank Warren followed with an RBI on a groundball to second that was misplayed and then junior
Rocco Garza Gongora hit a sacrifice fly to put the Vaqueros up 2-0.
The Texans (33-16) got one back in the bottom of the inning on a two-out RBI-single by
Ike Shirey to make the score 2-1.
In the fourth, Taylor walked and Warren doubled, setting up sacrifice flies by Garza Gongora and senior
Thomas Williams to extend the Vaqueros' lead to 4-1.
In the bottom of the inning, though, the Texans loaded the bases with one out. Shirey hit a two-run single. One out later, with the bases re-loaded,
Rayner Heinrich hit a grand slam off graduate student
Robert Bonilla (1-3) to give the Texans a 7-4 lead.
With two outs in the fifth, Villescas singled and Fischer doubled, setting up a Taylor two-run single to bring the Vaqueros within 7-6.
In the bottom of the inning, though,
Brady Englett hit a two-run home run and later in the inning,
Kendyl Johnson added an RBI-single to push the Texans' lead to 10-6.
That made a winner of Conner Doucet (5-0), who pitched 1.1 perfect innings of relief.
Garza Gongora belted a two-run home run in the eighth to finish with four RBI. He has now homered in back-to-back games.
Tai Phetluangsy pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save.
Junior La Joya alum
JC Gutierrez pitched 2.0 perfect innings of relief, striking out a career-high tying four. He has now pitched 7.1 hitless innings across his last two outings.
Freshman
Calvin Junek made his collegiate debut, pitching a scoreless eighth and notching his first-career strikeout.
UTRGV and Tarleton State complete the series on Sunday at 12 p.m. on
ESPN+ and
WAC International.
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