Vaqueros land spot in Southland Conference Tournament
UTRGV outfielder Damien Whitfield swings against the University of Incarnate Word Cardinals Friday night at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg. Logan Huizar/Pulse
With the UTRGV baseball team’s victory tonight, it now has secured a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament after a 10-inning game against the Cardinals.
The Vaqueros won (4-3) in front of 5,548 fans against the University of Incarnate Word, making it the 22nd win of the season, bringing the overall record to 22-25.
Their triumph follows its win on Wednesday against the Oregon State University Beavers.
Head Coach Derek Matlock described the game as a “trap game,” a game where the stronger opponent overlooks the weaker opponent where the latter overcomes the adversity and even possibly wins the game.
“We fought in there, we pitched good enough, and had some big hits there at the end of the game,” Matlock said. “I thought we played pretty good tonight.”
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, until the Vaqueros loaded the bases with one out, leading to Outfielder Hank Warren making the score 1-0.
Matlock added it is the small things that he and the team try to focus on during practices.
“We had a big play over here at first base and kind of took [the cardinals] out of an inning,” he said. Those [are] small things we work on. So we’re moving, but we got a long way to go, it’s a tough conference.”
During tonight’s “Lucha Libre” game Combat Cult Wrestling and the New Breed School of Wrestling hosted wrestling events before and after the game.
Eddie Garza, a UTRGV accounting major and owner of Combat Cult Wrestling, said despite baseball and wrestling being two different worlds, the two fanbases created an energetic atmosphere and brought awareness to the Rio Grande Valley’s wrestling scene.
“Something about bringing wrestling in front of people who might not have even known it was around … is a little bit more entertaining than WWE because it’s right in front of you,” Garza said.
The wrestling events were also a great way to see local “future stars” before making it to the big leagues, according to Danny Chance, owner of the New Breed School of Wrestling.
The next game for the Vaqueros will be against the Cardinals at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
