The UTRGV baseball team lost 6-4 to the Sam Houston Bearkats in the middle game of a Western Athletic Conference three-game series on Saturday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Junior Adrian Torres led the Vaqueros (9-9, 1-4 WAC) offensively, posting his second-career three-hit game by going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Graduate student Montclair Cain went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Junior PSJA High alum Jacob Sanchez walked twice while going 1-for-3 with a run scored.
The Bearkats (12-8, 5-0 WAC) broke the scoreless tie in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Easton Loyd.
In the bottom of the inning, though, the Vaqueros put runners on the corners with one out. Cain took off from first to second. The throw went into center field, allowing senior Roberto Gonzalez to score to tie the game.
The Bearkats regained the lead in the fifth on an RBI-single by Tyler Davis before going up 3-1 on a Loyd home run in the sixth.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Cain and Sanchez singled to setup RBI-singles by Torres and senior Edinburg Vela alum RJ Ochoa to tie the game at 3.
The Bearkats went ahead in the top of the seventh on a Walker Janek RBI-single against sophomore Randy Garza (0-1), but in the bottom of the inning, the Vaqueros tied the game on a one-out RBI-single by graduate student Brandon Pimentel.
In the eighth, however, three of the first four hitters walked, leading to a two-run single by Joe Redfield to give the Bearkats the lead for good.
That made a winner of Rome Shubert (1-2), who pitched 1.1 scoreless innings of relief.
Braden Davis pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save.
UTRGV and Sam Houston conclude this three-game series on Sunday at 12 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. Tickets are on sale now at UTRGVTickets.com. Current UTRGV students 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. Gates open at 11 a.m.
Fans unable to attend in person can watch domestically on ESPN+ or internationally via WAC International.