Vaqueros fall short against RiverHawks

The Vaqueros baseball team dropped a game (17-9) Thursday in the first of three games against the Northeastern State University RiverHawks.

Their slump follows their loss on Monday, March 31, against the Rice University Owls.

This is the Vaqueros 16th loss, bringing their overall record for the season to 14-16.

Head Coach Derek Matlock was ejected from the game during the 4th inning and was not available for a post game interview. 

Matlock went on the field to discuss with the referee and was ejected with no official reason given.

Associate Head Coach Rob Martinez said Matlock did the right thing and that the team has his back.

“We kind of plan ahead of schedule what could happen in the game and try to stick with the plan,” Martinez said. “Sometimes you gotta make adjustments throughout it.”

He said the team did much better offensively but he hopes they can improve on the approach they take to tagging, to put out a runner by a touch with the ball or the gloved hand.

Fans were disappointed with Matlock’s ejection, with some students thinking it was unfair.

Emily Martinez, psychology senior, said the game was a little disappointing and they may have needed a better start to the game.

She found Matlock’s ejection to be entertaining and it shows that he cares about the team.

Morgan Ramos, exercise science senior, shared the sentiment about the game being disappointing.

“I just think that they get discouraged halfway through,” Ramos said. “When they’re doing good, they’re doing good, but when they’re doing bad, they’re doing bad.”

The theme of the night was Selena Night, with many fans wearing merchandise to show their support. There was a lookalike contest held and Selena stickers being passed out to lucky fans.

Derek Warkentine, mechanical engineering freshman, said the themes really help everybody come out to the game.

“We got so many more people coming out here tonight,” Warkentine said. “It’s nice having, like, one specified game where everyone pulls up to it.”

Martinez said despite the bad performance of the game, they are right there to get better for the weekend games. 

“If we start playing together and we start believing in each other and supporting each other, we’re gonna be right there to have a chance to fight at the end,” Martinez said.

The next game for the Vaqueros will be against the RiverHawks at 6:30 p.m. Friday night at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.