UTRGV’s Southland Tournament run ends against HCU

Bryan Ramos | Staff Writer

EDINBURG — UTRGV’s Southland Conference Tournament run came to an end on Day 3 of Edinburg Bracket play as the Vaqueros won their first elimination game of the day against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 10-4, before dropping their second elimination game against Houston Christian, 4-2, at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

Houston Christian (30-23) advances to next week’s SLC Championship Series to face New Orleans (28-24). The winner earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.

UTRGV, meanwhile, awaits its future. The Southland Conference regular season co-champion Vaqueros (36-18) will be in contention and hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament which are determined by the NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee. If the Vaqueros do not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, their 2025 season is over.

“What a good team. What a great year they’ve put together,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said about the Vaqueros. “Whatever happens with the committee, what a great job by the Valley supporting us and our guys playing their butts off with two tough games today to fight in there and almost get this thing to the last game. … You take your hat off to people that beat you and you respect them, but you gotta respect us too, because we’ve done a lot of work all year ourselves.”

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Isaac Lopez (12) connects with the ball pitched by A&M-Corpus Christi to help bring in two runners in a Southland Conference playoff game at the UTRGV Baseball Field Saturday, May, 17, 2025, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

In UTRGV’s first elimination game of the day, the No. 2 Vaqueros put together a dominant offensive performance to take down No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 10-4.

Southland Conference Player of the Year Armani Raygoza led the Vaqueros with two home runs during an 8-run sixth inning. He finished 2-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored.

UTRGV pitcher Steven Oliva earned his second win of the tournament in the victory over TAMUCC. He pitched a career high 4.1 innings of relief and finished with a career-high six strikeouts while giving up just three hits.

Celebrations erupt in the dugout after a run in by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley against A&M-Corpus Christi in a Southland Conference playoff game at the UTRGV Baseball Field Saturday, May, 17, 2025, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

In UTRGV’s second elimination game of the day, the No. 2 Vaqueros found themselves in a late-inning dogfight against No. 6 Houston Christian.

Tied at 1-1 entering the eighth, UTRGV pulled in front after a double by Easton Moomau and an RBI-single by Thomas Williams.

Houston Christian answered immediately with a three-run bottom half of the inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Vaqueros went down in order in the top of the ninth to seal the win in favor of the Huskies.

Houston Christian served as the home team due to it’s 2-0 record in bracket play compared to UTRGV’s 2-1 record entering Saturday night’s matchup.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley head baseball coach Derek Matlock talks with players on the mound during a Southland Conference Championship series against Houston Christian University at the UTRGV Baseball Field Saturday, May, 17, 2025, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

UTRGV pitcher Robert Bonilla entered in relief during the third and gave up two runs off four hits and one walk while striking out five across five innings.

The Huskies had the Vaqueros’ number this year with a 4-1 record in head-to-head meetings. Two of those came this week during SLC tourney bracket play.

“What a good job by (Robert) Bonilla and (Anthony) Tejada there at the end having a tough ground ball leak through to give them the two runs. What a good fight here in the heat,” Matlock said. “Congratulations to those guys, Houston Christian, but we’re not out. Let’s don’t panic. There’s 10 people on a committee that are going to hear our name come up a lot. I mean No. 37 RPI, and a lot of big wins, so now, by not winning this thing, we’ve put it in the hands of 10 people. We’ve done the work. Cross our fingers and see what happens.”

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Hank Warren (21) rejoices after a safe slide to home plate against A&M-Corpus Christi in a Southland Conference playoff game at the UTRGV Baseball Field Saturday, May, 17, 2025, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

The Vaqueros might have just possibly played their last game of the season, but they are also in the running for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Conference tournament winners earn automatic bids, while at-large bids go to the next top teams deemed worthy of a spot by the NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee. The committee is made up of 10 members from different NCAA DI programs across the country.

The 2025 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament Selection Show is scheduled for May 26 on ESPN2.

“We’ve been beat up just fighting. It’s been rough on the mound being injured but we’ve had a lot of good guys step up and fight in there,” Matlock said. “We’re two wins over the (single-season) record we set in 2019. We had a great year. We beat a lot of great teams. A lot of great teams are going to be in the postseason, so we got to hope 10 people on that committee like us and like our resume.”

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