UTRGV baseball falls to top-ranked Texas in front of historic crowd

UTRGV fell 7-2 Tuesday night to No. 10-ranked University of Texas at Austin in the UTRGV Baseball Stadium with a wave of different shades of orange and a single-game-program record attendance of 6,418. 

With Texas making its first trip to the Rio Grande Valley in 51 years, the Longhorns were welcomed with many of their own fans in the stands and the largest crowd in UTRGV baseball program history. 

The Vaqueros kept the Longhorns’ star lineup contained in the first three innings, only allowing one run. This changed in the top of the fourth, when Texas scored four runs to make it 5-0. UTRGV’s first run came in the bottom of the sixth by redshirt freshman shortstop Isaac Lopez. Texas added two runs in the top of the eighth to make it 7-1. Lopez finished the night with a run in the bottom of the ninth for a final score of 7-2.

“What a great crowd, what a great atmosphere,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said after the game. “The program has come a long way in five years and it’s got to come a lot further. Our expectations are better than that. We have to beat teams like that if we’re going to get in the mix like they were when they were the Broncs. Then we have to beat teams like that at home.”