UTRGV baseball falls in heartbreaking fashion, 2-3, to California Baptist University Friday evening at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
In the top of the ninth, evened at two, Lancer freshman PH Connor Clift hit the winning RBI-single to right center to score freshman PR Reeve Holley off of Vaquero graduate reliever Kevin Palm.
The Vaqueros have now dropped six of their last seven games including 0-3 and 2-3 defeats to the Lancers Thursday night and Friday afternoon.
UTRGV Head Coach Derek Matlock expressed frustration and bewilderment of his team’s hitting woes as the usual strong offensive program has only put up four runs through three games against CBU compared to their average five per game this season in a postgame news conference via Zoom.
“That’s about as bad as it gets on offense,” Matlock said. “It’s been a while; this is a good offensive ball club here and I think we’ve had some games where you see that. It was tough.”
He did give credit to the Lancers with the clutch hit to take the win but also towards graduate relief pitcher Matt Amrhein stepping in during the sixth inning. Amrhein threw 3.2 innings only allowing three hits with no runs or walks and striking out five of the 13 batters he faced to keep the 2-2 game intact.
“[Amrhein] comes in throwing a lot of great secondary pitches,” Matlock said. “We have got hitters not staying behind the baseball and getting out in front of that baseball, and you can’t hit doing that.”
Amrhein was credited with the win, improving to a 2-0 record on the season and freshman closer CJ Culpepper earned his ninth save of the season, to lead the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), by striking out Vaquero junior left fielder Brett Cain to close the game.
The Vaqueros were able to score early as graduate third baseman Conrado Diaz and shortstop Christian Sepulveda crossed home on wild pitches from Lancer freshman starting pitcher Liam Roach in the first and second inning, respectively.
The Lancers first run came in the top of the second as junior second baseman Harrison Spohn hit an RBI-double to left center off Vaquero sophomore starting pitcher Colten Davis.
Davis would give up a second run in the fourth when junior DH Russell Stevenson singled toward the right side of the diamond that brought in graduate first baseman John Glenn.
The Vaqueros will close out their four-game series against the Lancers 10 a.m. Saturday.
Matlock’s message to the team was simple as UTRGV avoids being swept by a conference opponent for the first time since the 2018 season against Northern Colorado in a three-game series on the road.
“I challenged them out there today right after the game, we’ll see if we got any guts and any grit,” Matlock said. “It’s hard to get swept in a four-game but we are right there at the crescent and if we don’t play good, they’ll take advantage of us.”
To listen to Saturday’s game live, visit utrgvradio.com or download the RadioFX app on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
