UTRGV baseball powers through Texas Tech for road win

UTRGV REPORT

LUBBOCK – The UTRGV Vaqueros baseball team, which is receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls for the eighth week in a row, hit three home runs, including a grand slam, to beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders 13-4 on Tuesday at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park.

 The Vaqueros (29-15) entered the game ranked No. 34 in the NCAA RPI while the Red Raiders (15-25) entered at No. 61.

The 9-run margin of victory is the third largest in program history against Texas Tech and largest since May 12, 1980, a 19-10 road win.

The 13 runs are the third most UTRGV has ever scored against Texas Tech.

Junior Damien Whitfield and senior Steven Lancia led the Vaqueros by driving in four runs each. Whitfield drove-in all his runs with his first-career home run, a grand slam, to cap a 7-run third that put the Vaqueros up 9-2. Lancia hit a 3-run home run against Connor Mohan (1-2) earlier in the third and added a sacrifice fly in the first. The four RBI are a career high for Whitfield and a season high for Lancia.

Lancia now has five home runs this season and 16 in his career, tied for the 16^th-best total in program history.

The Vaqueros hit a season-high tying three home runs as sophomore Armani Raygoza homered for the third-straight game, hitting a two-run shot in the fifth, to put the Vaqueros up 12-2. Raygoza leads the Southland Conference with 14 home runs. For his career, Raygoza has hit 20 home runs, the sixth-most in program history.

The Vaqueros have hit 10 home runs over their last four games.

The Vaqueros scored twice in the first, as graduate student Edinburg Vela alumnus Isaac Lopez led off with a single and later scored on an RBI-double by sophomore Easton Moomau.

Moomau drove-in another run with a groundout in the ninth to put the Vaqueros up 13-4.

Raygoza went a career-high tying 4-for-6 with two RBI and two runs scored while finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Whitfield finished 2-for-4 with a walk, four RBI and two runs scored. Lopez went 2-for-6 with a run scored.

The Red Raiders scored twice in the bottom of the first against senior Robert Bonilla, as Tracer Lopez led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a single by Kyeler Thompson. Two batters later, with runners at second and third and one out, Antoinelli Savattere hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. 

Logan Hughes added a 2-run home run with two outs in the fifth to bring the Red Raiders within 12-4.

Bonilla made his first start since 2023 at New Mexico Junior College, pitching a career-high 4.2 innings despite a 3:22 rain delay from 2:08 to 5:30 p.m. The delay began with two outs in the third, but Bonilla came back out after the delay to pitch two more innings.

Junior Nick Nolan (2-1) earned the win in relief by pitching 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out two.

Junior Steven Oliva pitched 3.0 scoreless innings for his sixth save.

UTRGV and Texas Tech complete the series at 6 p.m. Wednesday on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

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