EDINBURG – The UTRGV Vaqueros struck for four early runs and starter Kevin Stevens made them stand up in a 4-1 win over Sam Houston in the series opener Friday night at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Despite the loss, the Kats (27-21, 17-8 WAC) still hold a 2-game lead over UTRGV (30-20, 15-10 WAC) and Lamar in the WAC Southwest Division standings with only five games remaining in the league slate.
The starters went toe-to-toe for the majority of the evening, but it was two tough innings for SHSU starter
Matt Dillard in the second and third innings that proved to be the difference in the game.
The teams traded zeros in the first inning, but UTRGV was able to break through in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Jacob Hirsch. One inning later they pushed across three more on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Pimentel and a 2-run double by Brett Cain, his second hit of the night.
Dillard rebounded to put up clean innings in both the fourth and fifth, but Stevens – the WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year – was on his game in the final home start of his career, keeping the Kats at bay throughout his eight innings of work. He finished with nine strikeouts for the game and allowed just three singles while walking only one batter, upping his record to 7-2 on the year.
On the other side, Dillard finished with seven strikeouts of his own and had only one walk, pitching into the seventh inning before giving
Logan Hewitt from the bullpen who threw 1.1 scoreless innings of relief. Dillard was saddled with the loss, falling to 5-4 on the year.
Sam Houston made things interesting in the ninth after UTRGV went to Ricky Gerik Jr. out of the pen, getting three straight 2-out singles by
Carlos Contreras,
Walker Janek and
Easton Loyd to plate a run and bring the tying run to the plate; however, Gerik was able to finish out the game with his lone strikeout of the inning.
The Kats and Vaqueros will continue the series on Saturday with the second game of the weekend. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN+.
