Vaqueros wash up Islanders

The UTRGV Baseball Team won 20-2 tonight against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium, bringing its record to 16-12 overall and 6-6 conference.

The Vaqueros started the game off strong with five runs and a home run during the first inning.

Graduate outfielder and first baseman Brandon Pimentel, senior infielder Roberto Gonzalez, redshirt junior outfielder Adrian Torres, junior catcher and infielder Jacob Sanchez and graduate outfielder Montclair Cain scored the runs, while sophomore catcher Steven Lancia hit the homer, his first of the season.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth inning that UTRGV scored again. Fifth-year infielder Angel De La Cruz received a walk, earning UTRGV another run. Following Cruz, redshirt sophomore infielder Isaac Lopez hit a home run and brought in senior outfielder Zerek Saenz, who was on second base.

Things started to pick up again when the Vaqueros scored an additional seven runs during the fifth inning, bringing the score to 16-0.

Gonzalez, Cain, De La Cruz, junior infielder Kade York, Saenz, Pimentel and Lancia crossed home plate.

During the sixth inning, the Vaqueros reached 20 runs after Cain, Sanchez, junior infielder Damian Rodriguez and freshman utility Juan Rivera scored.

At the top of the seventh inning, the Islanders’ sophomore catcher Chance Reisdorph and senior first baseman Max Puls managed to score two runs, making the final score 20-2.

Head baseball coach Derek Matlock said the game started off great and was fun to watch.

Matlock said this game helped his confidence for the upcoming Houston Christian University games. 

“You move on to the next inning,” he said. “[Graduate pitcher Kris Massey] threw enough balls in the strike zone. … He came in early spring. We thought he was going to be a starter. … He really fired me up. It was a big-time start.”

Pimentel has a .369 batting average and an on-base percentage of .447, while also scoring a grand slam and two runs in this game.

Matlock said after the six runs in the first inning, the Vaqueros did not score for the next three innings and that scared him a little.

“Just like Texas State last week,” he said. “They went up 6-0 on us, and we just chipped away because they didn’t score. We did a good job tonight because we kept scoring.”

Freshman infielder and pitcher Ruben Gonzalez has an earned run average of 2.45.

Lancia credits some of their success to focusing on their approach as a team.

Asked when he knew they were very likely to win, Lancia replied it was hard to say exactly when.

“I feel like after that second set of runs we started scoring,” he said. “It was looking pretty good. I feel like once we get going, we just keep going.”

Lancia hit a grand slam during the first inning, had two runs and five RBI.

Massey credits Lancia for his work as a catcher.

“Him setting up where I need him to allows me to be comfortable when I’m throwing,” he said. “Just hit it where he calls it. Just being able to throw the slider for strikes and the fastball for strikes.”

Next up for the Vaqueros is three away games against Houston Christian University at 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 1 p.m. Saturday. The next home game will be at 6:30 p.m. April 21 against Abilene Christian University.