HOUSTON – UT Rio Grande Valley put HCU in a 7-0 hole in the top of the first inning and the Huskies never got back into it as the Vaqueros earned a weekend sweep with a 16-5 eight inning win.
The Vaqueros (13-11, 8-4 SLC) came out ready to go offensively with a leadoff single followed by a pair of walks and a grand slam from Julius Ramirez for a 4-0 lead four batters into the game. That turned into a seven-run inning on five hits, a pair of walks and an error.
UTRGV added two runs on three hits in the top of the second to push the lead to 9-0. The Huskies (11-12, 4-5 SLC) got on the board in the second with
Levi Castilleja and
Preston Curtis reaching on back-to-back singles with one out. Following a strikeout,
Nico DeFazio launched his first home run of the season over the left field fence to trim the HCU deficit down to six, 9-3.
A walk, a single and a sacrifice fly plated another run for the Huskies in the fourth to make it a 9-4 game. The Vaqueros responded with a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth, pushing their lead up to 13-4. HCU got one back in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a pair of UTRGV errors but the visitors closed out the scoring with three more runs in the eighth before shutting the Huskies down in the bottom half of the inning to bring the game to an early end.
DeFazio moved his hitting streak to seven games with a 2-for-3 performance, raising his batting average to .313. Curtis scored twice for the Huskies on a 1-for-3 day.
The Vaqueros scored 16 runs on 17 hits, leaving 11 runners on base while holding the Huskies to five runs on five hits.
The Huskies have a pair of midweek games this week, first taking on the Texas A&M Aggies on Tuesday, Mar. 24, before hosting the Rice Owls in a rematch on Wednesday, Mar. 25, at Husky Field.
