UTRGV defeated by Bobcats

The UTRGV Baseball Team lost 6-5 during Wednesday night’s game against Texas State University at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium, bringing its record to 12-12 overall and 3-6 conference.

Texas State dominated the second inning of the game with six runs, the last four of which were due to a grand slam by junior infielder Davis Powell.

The teams were at a standstill until senior outfielder Zerek Saenz ran the first point for UTRGV during the fourth inning.

The following inning, junior infielder Jacob Sanchez ran the second point of the game after graduate outfielder Montclair Cain hit a double.

Cain has a .321 batting average and .368 on-base percentage.

Graduate first baseman Brandon Pimentel proceeded to score the Vaquero’s third point during the seventh inning. 

During the eighth inning, the Vaqueros scored two more points with junior infielder Damian Rodriguez running the fourth point, followed by junior infielder Kade York running the fifth, making the score 6-5.

UTRGV was not able to tie the game during the ninth inning, ending the game at a narrow loss.

Rodriguez has a .091 batting average with a .231 on-base percentage, while York has a .320 batting percentage and a .400 on-base percentage.

Head coach Derek Matlock said the Vaqueros need to work on the small things to become a great team.

“We did a lot of good things,” Matlock said. “We just need to get a little better.”

He said there was a lot to learn from the game.

“There were some positives to pull from that game,” Matlock said. “It’s not always about win or lose, sometimes it’s about learning the team. … It ain’t going to get easier. We just got to do the small things right.”

He said the conference games are really important to him because that is what gives them a chance to get into the Western Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament and win.

“Our goals are still ahead of us,” Matlock said. “This loss does nothing to us. … They scored six runs in the second, and that’s pretty hard to come back from, but we almost did.”

He said he believes the Vaqueros could have come back from the eighth inning but they had trouble with the strike zone. 

“We’re swinging at too many of them out of the strike zone,” he said. “We can’t hit them. … We have to clean it up as an offense. If you throw balls in the strike zone, then our guys can handle it.”

Graduate pitcher Kriss Massey said it was not the result the team wanted but they rallied together.

Massey credits Matlock as inspiration to go out there and compete, holding back the Bobcats’ offense.

He said the team is focusing on “the little things” to prepare for the upcoming weekend games.

“Getting that situated and getting that fixed … come in, get our work done and then get ready for Friday,” Massey said.

He has earned a run average of 3.68.

Pimentel said it was a slow start for the team, but they fought hard until the last out.

“We definitely had a chance,” Pimentel said. “We came up short but we’re still fighting.”

He said they are ready for the weekend games against Tarleton State University. 

Pimentel has a batting percentage of .358, an on-base percentage of .433 and 61 RBI.

The Vaqueros are set to play three Western Athletic Conference games against Tarleton State University at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon Sunday at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.