UTRGV falls to Corpus in South Texas Showdown

EDINBURG — After an extensive road trip for the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, the Vaqueros had a bit of a bumpy homecoming this past weekend.

UTRGV (14-14, 9-6) hosted the Texas A&M-Corpus  Christi Islanders (13-14, 3-8) in a three-game series as part of the annual South Texas Showdown. Corpus took the first game of the series on Friday, while UTRGV knotted it up Saturday.

However, on Sunday, the Islanders got the best of the home squad as they took the dub 5-2.

This game in particular was reminiscent to playground ball — heat beaming down from the Valley sun, umbrellas covering those who attended and heckling from all parties.

Corpus Christi, like the South Texas sun, put the Vaqueros in quite a bind early on as they jumped to a hot 3-0 start after loading up the bases and scoring off a sacrifice fly and a two-run single.

The Islanders were able to dig the hole a bit deeper for UTRGV to climb out of as they built the lead to 5-0 at the top of fourth after Jackson Smith was able to gain an RBI double.

There was a bit of a spark from the Vaqueros at the bottom of the fourth as Armani Raygoza, who recently broke the all-time home run record for the school, hit a double to get the ball rolling.

Afterward, Easton Moomau then got himself an RBI, while Diego Villescas — a PSJA product — followed suit with his own RBI.

UTRGV did have multiple chances to gain some momentum and possibly the lead during the rest of the game. 

At the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded, Rudy Gonzalez hit a grounder that ended up in a double-play for the Islanders. 

At the bottom of the eighth, it was a similar situation, bases were loaded but Corpus’ defense proved true in weathering the possible runs by UTRGV. Rocco Garza Gongora hit it right up the middle that caught Islander pitcher Nathan Mueller a bit on the body. Enduring the brunt of the ball, Mueller was able to throw to first to get the final out.

Compared to Saturday’s win in which UTRGV allowed only four hits, the Vaqueros gave up 11 in the loss to Corpus.

Head Coach Derek Matlock said that the first inning really did a number on his squad as they were unable to overcome the deficit.

“We got to have good starts, man,” Matlock said. “I don’t know if we’ve overcome a bad start this year. When we have a good start, we win. If we don’t have a good start, we lose.”

UTRGV traveled to Houston on Tuesday to take on Rice University, but they fell, 6-4.

Before the Easter holiday, the Vaqueros will host Northwestern State here at home in a three-game series.

For information on tickets, click here.