Texas Border Business
EDINBURG – Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) baseball team erupted for five runs en route to a 7-3 victory over Seattle U on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Junior Tyler Torres came to the plate in the seventh with the bases loaded for UTRGV (26-14, 12-4 WAC) and delivered a two-run single that gave UTRGV the 4-3 lead.
Later in the inning, UTRGV loaded the bases once again and this time it was freshman Edinburg Vela alum Aaron Galvan who came through with a two-run single to left. Freshman Jacob Flores capped the inning with an RBI single of his own making it 7-3 in favor of UTRGV.
That made a winner of senior Trevelle Hill (7-2) who pitched seven innings while allowing three runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Senior Ryan Jackson closed out the game with two scoreless innings and two strikeouts.
Seattle U (9-31, 4-12 WAC) got the scoring started in the top of the second on a two-run single by Julian Kodma, who also added another RBI in the sixth inning, before UTRGV broke through against Jarrod Billig (3-3) in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI groundout from Galvan and an RBI single from junior Elijah Alexander.
Galvan tied a career-high with three RBI on the night while Flores finished a career-best 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Alex Jemal (0-6) took the loss after giving up four runs on without recording an out in the seventh.
UTRGV and Seattle U starting play the middle game of the series on Saturday at 6 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium. Saturday is Community Heroes Night. UTRGV Athletics want to thank police officers, firefighters, emergency medical services, active duty military, veterans, nurses and doctors for their service by offering them free general admission. Accompanying guests of community heroes will receive specially priced $3 general admission tickets. Gates open at 5.