UTRGV rallies past Nicholls for third-straight Southland sweep

EDINBURG – The UTRGV Vaqueros baseball team scored 14 unanswered runs across the second half of the game to come from behind and complete its third-straight Southland Conference series by beating the two-time reigning conference tournament champion Nicholls Colonels 14-5 on Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

The Vaqueros (14-3, 9-0 SLC) are now 9-0 in conference play for the first time ever in an NCAA Division I conference, besting the previous record of 8-0 set in the Great West Conference in 2012.

Including sweeps of defending Southland Champion Lamar and New Orleans the last two weeks, this is the first time UTRGV has swept three conference series since 2019, when the Vaqueros swept four Western Athletic Conference (WAC) series (Northern Colorado, Grand Canyon, Seattle U, and Utah Valley) en route to winning the WAC Championship.

The Vaqueros are also off to their best overall start since 1979 when they started 15-1.

The Vaqueros trailed 5-0 entering the fifth. Junior Damien Whitfield and sophomore Edinburg Vela alumnus Rudy Gonzalez led off with walks. After a groundball moved them up a base, junior Thomas Williams hit a 2-run single to make the score 5-2.

The Vaqueros sent 11 batters to the plate to score six runs in the sixth. One out after a walk and a single to start the inning, Gonzalez, graduate student Edinburg Vela alumnus Isaac Lopez, and Williams all hit RBI-singles against Nick Fields (1-1). Sophomore Easton Moomau followed by getting plunked and then senior Steven Lancia drew a bases loaded walk. Sophomore Armani Raygoza capped the inning with a 2-run single to put the Vaqueros up 8-5.

The Vaqueros put runners at second and third with one out in the seventh, setting up a Williams sacrifice fly, a Moomau RBI-double and a Lancia RBI-single to make the score 11-5.

The Vaqueros loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth. Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly that advanced all the runners and then Lopez capped the scoring with a 2-run single.

That made a winner of junior Caden Wanless (1-0), who retired all three batters he faced in the sixth. 

Lopez, Williams, Moomau, Raygoza, junior Rene Galván, and senior Hank Warren all finished with two hits. Williams drove-in a career-high four runs while scoring once. Lopez drove-in three while scoring a run. Moomau scored twice and drove-in one. Raygoza had two RBI. Galván scored twice. Warren who came off the bench as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, also scored twice. Gonzalez finished 1-for-2 with a walk, a career-high tying two RBI and a career-high three runs scored. 

Senior Jacob Limas retired the first two Colonels (8-14, 3-6 SLC) in the first, but the next three hit singles, including one by Noah Detillier to drive-in a run and make the score 1-0.

The Colonels added two in the third on RBI-singles by Aaron Biediger and Carter Jenkins to make the score 3-0.

In the fourth, Karson Irvin was plunked with one out. He then stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a Chase Jans single. One out later, Biediger got plunked and then Detillier hit an RBI-single to make the score 5-0.

UTRGV opens a two-game nonconference series against Texas Southern on $2 Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. General admission tickets and select concession items will be available for $2 or less. Fans are all encouraged to take part in play trivia related to the US sitcom, “The Office,” in between innings.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at UTRGVTickets.com.

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