Texas Border Business
STEPHENVILLE – In a game that featured runs in 11 half innings, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team fell to the Tarleton State University Texans 10-7 on Saturday at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
Junior Brandon Pimentel led the Vaqueros (11-8, 2-3) by going 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Graduate students Freddy Rojas Jr. and Bryan Sturges each drove-in two runs as well. Sturges reached on a double, a walk, and a hit by pitch, meaning he’s been on base three times in each of the first two games of the series. Graduate student Brett Cain finished 2-for-5.
The Vaqueros trailed 4-1 entering the fifth. That’s when Rojas drove-in his runs, coming up with a one-out single with runners at second and third.
After the Texans (6-12, 2-3) got one back in the bottom of the inning on a two-out single by Trace Morrison, Pimentel hit a two-run single against Zach Gagnon (1-0) in the sixth to tie the game at 5.
Senior Ricky Gerik Jr. (1-1) recorded the first two outs of the bottom of the sixth quickly, including a strikeout that was his career-high tying fourth of the game. After an error, though, the Texans recorded three-straight singles, including one by Jaime Perez to drive-in a run and one by Corey Young to drive-in two runs. Then, after a walk, Morrison came up with an RBI-single to make the score 9-5.
Sophomore PSJA alum Jacob Sanchez led off the seventh with a home run, his third of the season.
The Vaqueros got another run back in the eighth on a Sturges sacrifice fly, but Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo used an RBI-single in the bottom of the inning to restore the Texans’ three-run lead.
Matthew Hickey recorded the final five outs for his third save.
The Texans got the scoring started in the second on a Bryan Aguilar double. Sturges answered with an RBI-double in the top of the third, but Taylor Daniell restored Tarleton’s lead with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning.
The Texans scored two more in the fourth on a Kurahashi-Choy Foo triple and an error.
