The UTRGV baseball team closed out the regular season with a three-game sweep of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, winning the finale 16-5 in eight innings Saturday at Jaycees Field in Nacogdoches.
The Vaqueros (29-24, 15-14 WAC) open the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at 6 p.m. Tuesday against UT-Arlington at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland Athletics. All games will be broadcast domestically on ESPN+ and internationally via WAC International.
UTRGV is now 11-10 on the road, making this the first time UTRGV has posted a winning record on the road since 2000 (8-7-1). UTRGV finishes WAC play with a 9-6 road record, marking the second straight season in which UTRGV has had a winning road record in WAC play after going 8-7 last season.
Brandon Pimentel extended his program-record career home run total to 30 with a solo shot during the second inning.
Pimentel now has 18 home runs this season, the third-highest single-season total in program history behind only Hall of Famer Mitchell Moran (20, 1983) and Jesse Gutierrez (21, 2000).
Pimentel finished 3-for-3 with a home run, a walk, four RBIs and two runs scored. Junior Adrian Torres went 2-for-2 with a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. Junior Kade York finished 2-for-2 with a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored. Sophomore Erick Martinez went 2-for-4 with his first home run, a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored. Junior and PSJA High alumnus Jacob Sanchez finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.
The Vaqueros knocked out Lumberjacks starter Cade Stapleton (1-8) three batters into the game, as senior Zerek Saenz doubled, sophomore and Vela alum Isaac Lopez was hit by a pitch, and Pimentel hit an RBI single. One out later, graduate student Montclair Cain hit an RBI single. Then, with two outs, Torres launched a three-run home run, his fourth of the season, and York belted a solo shot, his third of the season, to make the score 6-0 against SFA (22-28, 12-18 WAC).
Pimentel homered with one out in the second. One out after that, Cain walked and Sanchez singled. Torres followed with an RBI single and then York added a two-run single. After Martinez walked and Saenz was plunked to load the bases, Lopez walked to force in a run, and Pimentel capped the seven-run inning with a two-run single to make the score 13-0.
Sanchez added an RBI single during the fifth inning to put the Vaqueros up 14-1. Martinez blasted a two-run home run in the eighth to make the score 16-5.
Sophomore Randy Garza (3-3) started and pitched two hitless innings, striking out three. The only baserunner reached on an error.
Junior and Edinburg Vela alum Nico Rodriguez struck out two during a scoreless fourth. Sophomore Bobby Loya struck out the side in a hitless sixth.