HOUSTON – UT Rio Grande Valley poured on 16 runs in a five-inning span to defeat the HCU Huskies, 17-10, on Saturday afternoon at Husky Field in game two of the teams' Southland Conference series.
Just like in game one on Friday, HCU (11-11, 4-4 SLC) took the first lead of the game as
Luke Bard led off the second with a double, scoring two batters later when
Preston Curtis doubled to right center for a 1-0 game. The Vaqueros (12-11, 7-4 SLC) answered in the third, pushing across two runs on three hits.
Jeremy Rader led off the third with a single before stealing second.
Graham Laxton drew a walk to put a second runner on with nobody out. Later in the inning, Bard drove another double to the left center gap to bring both Laxton and Rader around to score and give the lead back to the Huskies, 3-2.
The top of the fourth saw UTRGV regain the lead for good as the visitors plated five runs on four hits, including a three-run home run by Armani Raygoza. Rocco Garza Gongora belted a three-run homer of his own in the fifth and the Vaqueros pushed across three more in the top of the sixth for a 13-3 lead.
The HCU offense picked things up in the bottom half of the sixth. The Huskies loaded the bases with nobody out after a pair of singles and a walk.
Zach Munton scored one with a sacrifice fly to right followed by an RBI single from
Nico DeFazio. After a
Walker Bazile bunt single again loaded the bases, Rader singled through the left side to bring Curtis in and add another run and keep the bases juiced. Laxton then brought DeFazio across the plate with a sac fly of his own for a four-run inning to cut the HCU deficit to 13-7.
The Vaqueros got three runs back in the top of the seventh as Raygoza hit his second home run of the day, a two-run shot to right, and a stolen base with a pair of HCU errors turned into another run for UTRGV.
Jack Walker started off the seventh with a double to right center. After consecutive strikeouts, DeFazio lifted a single to shallow right center to score Walker from second. Bazile and Rader then hit back-to-back singles to score DeFazio and give the Huskies runners on first and third. Bazile then scored on a passed ball for a third run in the inning and HCU finished the seventh trailing 16-10.
HCU went down in order in both the eighth and ninth as the Vaqueros added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.
Rader went 3-for-5 for the third-straight game with three singles, driving in two runs and scoring once. Over the last four games, Rader is 11-for-20 with eight RBI and four runs scored, raising his batting average from .222 to .293. Bard, Bazile, DeFazio and Walker all had two hits with Bard doubling twice and DeFazio extending his current hitting streak to six games.
Joshua Caravalho falls to 1-4 on the season on the mound after allowing seven runs, six earned, in four innings of work. Five relievers combined to finish out the last five innings of the game.
HCU scored 10 runs on 13 hits while committing four errors and leaving eight runners on base. The Vaqueros, meanwhile, scored their 17 runs on 17 hits and left 13 runners on.
The third, and final, game of the series is set for Sunday, Mar. 22, afternoon at Husky Field at 2:00 p.m.
