Tigers tamed: UTRGV wins season series against TSU

EDINBURG — There must've been something in the 14-to-17 mph winds that the Valley has been experiencing lately as UTRGV garnered 12 hits in their 10-4 win against Texas Southern University on Wednesday.

The second game in a two-game season series, the Vaqueros (5-8, 0-3) went 2-0 against the visiting Tigers (5-6, 0-0) here at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium in the 'Burg.

Scoring for both of the squads started to pick up in the fourth as a couple of wild pitches by UTRGV's Wyatt Wiatrek allowed TSU's Byron Robinson to get the first score. Afterward, a pop fly by Jonathan Trejo allowed Miguel Morales to score making it 2-0, Tigers leading.

Bottom of the fourth, UTRGV's Thomas Williams hit a double and Easton Moomau scored. Following that, Chayton Fischer then hit a double and Williams was able to run in for the RBI to knot it up at 2.

Then in the fifth, UTRGV committed their first error off of Chayton Fischer, which made it 3-2, Tigers leading going into the sixth.

Wiatrek pitched through five innings. Despite allowing three runs and five hits, he struck out five batters off of 69 pitches. In the sixth, he was replaced by Valley product, Daren Barrera (1-1), who is a former Edinburg High School Bobcat.

Barrera started off hot on the defensive end as he struck out two straight hitters — JJ Olivarez and Morales. 

The bottom of the sixth is where UTRGV really had the offensive hand as Rocco Garza Gongora singled to right field for an RBI as Damien Whitfield scored.

Following that, a few UTRGV players were walked as bases were filled to the brim. If the 12 hits were a signal of anything, TSU also had about five pitching changes on the night. In a sense, the team tried their best to stop the bleeding.

TSU got their fourth run at the top of the seventh off a double from Christopher Chavez, which allowed an RBI.

At the bottom of the seventh, UTRGV scored three runs to grow their lead to six runs.

Apart from Gongora, other players such as Fischer, Moomau and Hank Warren had themselves two hits each.

Head Coach Derek Matlock said the team did well on the offensive end of things.

"(The team) did a lot better. A lot better swinging, a lot better takes — still a long way to go," Matlock said. "... We're heading in the right direction."

On the stat sheet, despite the improved defensive effort in the later innings, the Vaqueros did have three errors — especially two coming from the top of the fifth.

"That's really disappointing — the shortstop situation there," the head coach said. "... So, yeah, we gotta tighten that up. We can't be giving no free outs; there's no way. This team could play defense. It's an expectation on our program.

"Last year, we're in the top 20 in the country on defense and we got to get moving on that end."

The Vaqueros will host the University of New Orleans this Friday for their first game of a three-game Southland Conference series at UTRGV Baseball Stadium at 6:30 p.m. in Edinburg.

The next game will be on Saturday at the same time, same field. Then the final game of the conference series will be Sunday at 1 p.m.

For more information on tickets, visit goutrgv.com.

To check out more photos, click here: https://www.anjournal.com/utrgv-takes-series-2-0-against-texas-southern-university