The UTRGV baseball team fell to the Grand Canyon Lopes 8-2 on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg in front of a season-best crowd of 4,261.
The Lopes (32-19, 18-7 WAC) scored in each of the first three innings against sophomore Randy Garza (2-2), on a Cade Verdusco double play in the first, a Zack Gregory sacrifice fly in the second, and an Elijah Buries sacrifice fly in the third.
The Vaqueros (26-22, 12-13 WAC) got one back against Daniel Avitia (7-1) in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by junior PSJA North alumnus Damian Rodriguez to make the score 3-1.
The Lopes scored an unearned run in the fifth on a 2-out error that brought home Zach Yorke to make the score 4-1.
A Gregory home run put the Lopes up 5-1 in the top of the sixth, but sophomore Steven Lancia answered with his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the inning to make the score 5-2.
Lancia and junior Adrian Torres each finished 2-for-4.
The Lopes added another run in the seventh on an infield RBI single by Elijah Burries.
The Lopes plated a pair of unearned runs in the ninth on a pair of errors.
UTRGV and Grand Canyon are scheduled to play the middle game of this three-game series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. It’s superhero night. All fans wearing superhero or comic book character costumes get free admission.
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 5:30 p.m.
Fans unable to attend in person can watch domestically on ESPN+ or internationally via WAC International. The game will also be televised in Spanish on Vallevisión Channel 8 (XHAB).