UTRGV baseball (19-17, 10-8) holds Seattle U (13-19, 7-11) scoreless in a seven inning 13-0 performance Saturday afternoon at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
On the first pitch of the game in the bottom half of the first, Vaquero graduate center fielder Coleman Grubbs took Redhawks starting pitcher Alex Jemal deep to left field for a 1-0 lead.
The Vaqueros would then add three more runs on RBI-singles from junior first baseman Angel De La Cruz, junior catcher RJ Ochoa and graduate shortstop Christian Sepulveda.
The lead would grow to six as graduate left fielder Elijah Alexander scored from third on a botched pickoff at second and junior third baseman DeAndre’ Shelton would bring in a run on a single.
Jemal would not make it through the first inning, having faced all nine batters in the Vaquero line up and only recording two outs having surrendered seven hits and six runs of which five were earned.
Seattle U Head Coach Donny Harrel would go to sophomore Kohl Petersen in his bullpen to record the final out of the first.
Petersen would then throw the next four innings with mixed results as he would give up a two-run shot over the right field wall to junior DH Freddy Rojas Jr. and RBI-singles to Alexander and Sepulveda to right and left field, respectively.
In the third inning with the 10-0, the Vaqueros added another run with an graduate second baseman Andy Atwood RBI-double.
Atwood, who earned the victory sombrero in Friday night’s 11-4 win, continued his hot streak going 3-4 with two runs and one RBI.
Vaquero graduate starter Kevin Palm, only surrendered three hits in his six-inning outing, at one point retiring nine straight in route to his first win of the season.
Junior reliever Anthony Rodriguez, who hadn’t pitched in over a month, helped in keeping the shutout for the Vaqueros, throwing two innings and only allowing a hit.
The Vaqueros would close out the scoring in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI-double from freshman catcher Jacob Sanchez, who was a defensive substitution behind the plate in the top of the sixth and a RBI-sac fly from Sepulveda to push the lead to 13-0.
This was the first time the Vaqueros held an opponent scoreless since their March 1 matchup against PAC-12 Washington in a 2-0 game and the sixth time the team rackups up double-digits on the scoreboard this season.
The Vaqueros are currently in action against the Redhawks in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader, recap coming soon.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
