Texas Border Business
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Senior Conrado Diaz tied a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) record by hitting four doubles to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team to a 10-2 victory over the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders on Sunday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium, completing the four-game sweep.
The Vaqueros (10-7) have now won seven in a row. They outscored the Highlanders (6-9) 48-3 in the series.
Diaz finished a career-high-tying 5-for-5 with his fourth three-RBI performance in five games and two runs scored. Diaz is the fourth player in WAC history to record four doubles and the first since 2018 when Northern Colorado’s Dean Lawson did so against Regis. Diaz is the second WAC player to hit four doubles against a Division I opponent, as Arizona State’s Gary Atwell did so against UTEP in 1971. Diaz finished one double shy of the NCAA record of five, a feat that has been accomplished eight times.
Graduate student Andy Atwood went 2-for-5 with a career-high two triples and a career-high four RBI. Senior Coleman Grubbs drew a career-high-tying three walks and scored a season-high-tying three times for the third time in the series. Junior EJ Taylor finished 2-for-5 with two RBI.
The first two innings were near mirror images of each other, as the Vaqueros scored on an Atwood two-run triple and a Diaz RBI-double. Grubbs scored on each of Atwood’s triples after walking. Taylor added a two-out RBI-single in the second to knock out Tyler Cirone (0-2).
Diaz doubled for a third time in the fourth, scoring on Taylor’s second RBI-single of the game.
The Vaqueros added a run in the fifth on an error and one in the seventh on Diaz’s final double of the game.
That made a winner of junior Edinburg alum John Henry Gonzalez (2-1), who racked up a career-high nine strikeouts while allowing one run on three hits and three walks in five innings.
The run came in the fourth on a Paul Franzoni sacrifice fly.
The Highlanders also scored in the seventh on an error.
UTRGV hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union. The first 200 fans in attendance will receive #BeatCorpus t-shirts. Kids 12 and younger will get to take a swing at the Islanders piñata. Fans can take advantage of Wacky Wednesday pricing that includes buy one, get one free tickets for adults. Current UTRGV students receive free admission to all UTRGV home games with a student ID. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at UTRGVTickets.com. Fans purchasing their tickets online prior to game day can save up to $2 per ticket. Gates open at 6.
