Victoria Gonzalez | Vaquero Radio
The Vaqueros started their season with a 2-1 series victory against the University of Rhode Island Rams, including a 15-1 win Monday at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
Junior catcher Steven Lancia guided the team offensively by hitting a career-best 5 for 5 with a career-high two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored. Graduate infielder CJ Valdez went two for three with a home run, a walk, a career-high six RBI and two runs scored.
The Rams tied the Vaqueros 1-1 at the top of the third. UTRGV responded by scoring 5 runs at the bottom of the inning.
After the Vaqueros lost their Feb. 18 game against the Rams, UTRGV Baseball head coach Derek Matlock shared how he felt about coming back from this loss.
“What a good series win after a gut-wrenching loss on the first game,” Matlock said. “They [robbed] us a homerunner win, and it’s hard to come back and fight. I thought our guys really matured. I thought our guys did an outstanding job of coming back and having a great series win.”
He added he and his team learned a lot from the game series.
“We got to learn a lot from this series,” Matlock said. “First series out of the box. We got a long way to go, but man, that sure was fun to watch that game right there. That’s a good ball club that just played for us.”
As the team kept putting up more runs, he explained the type of message he sent to his athletes as they kept extending the lead against the Rams.
“I didn’t say anything to them,” Matlock said. “Of course, I don’t say things to them in the game about that stuff. I was just wanting us to add on because their offense is so powerful. You know, we saw that on the first game, so you just gotta keep piling the strikes on. You gotta keep putting up zeros and then, you gotta try to keep getting a run. And as you do that, they start giving up, and that’s what ended up happening. We just kept staying after them with offense and pitching kept shoving it in there.”
Junior pitchers Mason Kosowick and Anthony Tejada both had perfect innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Matlock revealed it was their first time pitching at this level under pressure.
“Kosowick and Tejada, that was their first time pitching at this level, and so that was exciting to see them do that,” he said. “ The score was so out of whack as to how to [do] that in a one-run game. It’s going to come up down the road and we’re going to find out, but I love this stuff. Stuff was power, so good day for the Vaqueros, man. Now, we got to get back to work this week. Get ready for Milwaukee coming in.”
The Vaqueros will battle against the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Panthers in a three-game series at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
For more information visit, goutrgv.com.
This is Victoria Gonzalez for Vaquero Radio.
