UTRGV tops TAMUCC to stay alive in Southland tourney

UTRGV REPORT

EDINBURG —Sophomore Armani Raygoza homered twice in an 8-run sixth inning to power the UTRGV baseball team, the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament, past the No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 10-4 in bracket play, presented by Payne Auto Group, on Saturday UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

UTRGV advances for a rematch against No. 6 Houston Christian University at 6 p.m. If UTRGV wins, UTRGV will play HCU again on Sunday at 1 p.m. for a spot in the championship series.

Single-session passes are on sale now and can be purchased at UTRGVTickets.com. Current students of the participating Southland institutions receive free general admission with their student ID. All fans need to follow the clear bag policy, details of which can be found at GoUTRGV.com/ClearBag. Fans can find a full list of game day information at RallyTheValley.com.

Fans can watch all games domestically on ESPN+ or internationally via Southland International.

Raygoza led off the sixth inning with a solo home run to right. He capped the inning with a 3-run home run to left. Raygoza finished 2-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. This is his second-career multi-home run game and first of the season.

In-between Raygoza home runs, the Vaqueros (36-17) put two on with two out against Matthew Molina (0-2). Freshman Cameron Carter hit an RBI-single that gave the Vaqueros the lead. Junior Hank Warren then got plunked to load the bases before junior Rene Galván walked to force-in a run. Graduate student Vela alum Isaac Lopezfollowed with a 2-run single. Raygoza then launched his 3-run home run to put the Vaqueros up 10-3.

Lopez finished 2-for-5.

That made a winner of junior Steven Oliva (3-2), his second win of the tournament. He pitched a career-high 4.1 innings of dominant relief, striking out a career-high six. Oliva didn’t walk anyone and allowed three hits – one of which was a solo home run by Cade Sanchez in the seventh to make the score 10-4.

The Vaqueros jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second. Sophomore Easton Moomau and senior Steven Lancia opened the inning with singles before junior Thomas Williams hit an RBI-double. One out later, Warren lifted a sacrifice fly to put the Vaqueros up 2-0.

The Islanders (21-31) responded with three runs in the fifth on bases loaded walks by Isaac Webb, Sanchez, and Will Stark to make the score 3-2.

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