RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The sounds of bats cracking, balls popping into gloves, and teammates cheering could be heard throughout UTRGV Baseball Stadium as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros baseball team returned to the diamond for its first week of fall camp.
 
Fall camp looks a little different for the Vaqueros as head baseball coach Derek Matlock decided to integrate more intrasquad series throughout the fall season, rather than just saving it for the final weekend.
 
"Coach Matlock wanted to do the orange and gray the whole fall, so he wants to put something on the line every week," assistant baseball coach Ryan Jackson said. "This group just loves to compete. Everything they do out here is about competing, and they've really bought into really, really competing."
 
The position players are assigned to their respective squads. Orange features a great mix of returners and newcomers; meanwhile, Gray boasts some of the new talent that has been infused into the program this season.
 
The pitchers can switch squads from week to week, and the coaches have also added a new element to the series: trades. Teams are allowed to make trades, as long as they're deemed reasonable by the commissioner himself: Coach Matlock.
 
"We've told the guys, 'Hey, you guys can make a trade, but it has to be a reasonable trade," Jackson said. "But right now the teams seem balanced with each game ending with a one-run spread."
 
That brings us back to Monday, the first game of the three-game series, in which Gray won 2-1 to put Orange against the ropes.
 
After taking part in some routine practices, weights, and team drills on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Vaqueros returned to the diamond with a new sense of urgency and motivation to earn the first series win.
 
"It's been a busy week," returning junior Sharyland Pioneer alum Andy Chapa said. "Even in the weight room and then the intrasquad on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. We've been really getting after it."
 
Getting after it might be an understatement for Chapa, who posted eight hits throughout live at-bats this week to emerge as one of the early standouts of fall camp.
 

"It just seemed like every time he got up there, it was a really hard out," Jackson said. "He's been here for a year already, so he just knows what Coach [Taylor] Steen and Rob [Martinez] are really teaching him. He's a really gritty player at the plate."
 
Chapa couldn't play in summer ball after rehabbing an injury but was grateful just to be back on the field with the team.
 
"I definitely had to get back in shape," Chapa said. "But it's been great, I've just been having a lot of fun out here."
 
But on Thursday, it was the Orange Team that responded with a dramatic, 1-0 pitcher's duel, spearheaded by a great performance from sophomore Hutchinson Community College transfer Merek Yeager.
 
"He's just a strike-thrower that loves to compete," Jackson said. "He put just about every batter down 0-2."
 
Yeager showed flashes of dominance at Hutchinson CC last spring, posting four appearances with zero earned runs across 13 innings and earning two wins in the process.
 
Yeager shoved on Thursday, pitching a pair of scoreless innings, scattering two hits, and striking out three for Orange. Across 27 pitches, Yeager delivered 20 strikes, something that Jackson said is a focus for the squad this fall.
 

"On the mound, we threw a bunch of strikes," Jackson said. "Thursday and Friday, between those pitchers, they really stepped up and threw a bunch of strikes. We just played really clean baseball this week."
 
Yeager's outing helped Orange even the series and set up Friday's rubber game. The teams entered Friday with some newfound energy, a series and bragging rights on the line. Matlock kicked off the afternoon battle with an emphatic, "Who wants to win a series today!" followed by two thunderous claps.
 
Gray took the mound first as returning junior Carlos Vallejo made his first appearance in the series. Vallejo, a methodical pitcher, punched out the scorching Chapa. However, Vallejo had to focus on the reigning two-time Southland Conference Player of the Year, Armani Raygoza in his next at-bat.
 
Vallejo went into a 2-0 hole early but evened the count at 2-2. Raygoza took a back-door breaking pitch that just missed the zone to make it 3-2. The final pitch of the at-bat drifted just inside the strike zone and was launched over the fence in left field to take a 1-0 lead.
 

That shot would be the difference as Orange pitched a combined four-inning no-hitter to earn the first series win of the fall.
 
Returning sophomore Mason Engel got the start, retiring five of the six batters he faced, including two on strikes. Engel also walked the only baserunner for Gray but picked him off during the next at-bat.
 
Returning fifth-year Ruben Gonzalez got the first call from the bullpen and made his fall debut with a scorching fastball while sophomore Hutchinson CC transfer Brooks Jones pitched well in a save opportunity. The left-handed Jones forced a flyout, then struck one out looking, and forced a 6-3 groundout to end the game.
 
Orange took the win, and afterwards, Friday's pitchers received their custom UTRGV gloves, something Jackson said his pitchers had to "earn" this fall.
 
The Vaqueros look to continue the intensity and momentum through the fall camp, and the focus now is to just get better every week.

"Just get better next week," Jackson said. "Every week we've got to get better. That's the goal. The guys know that we must get 1% better every day."
 
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