Jackrabbits falter late at UTRGV

Sunday, March 1

Edinburg, Texas

noon

South Dakota State University

2-9

Texas Rio Grande Valley

6-7

South Dakota State

UT Rio Grande Valley

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

3/1/2020 4:18:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

EDINBURG, Texas – UT Rio Grande Valley struck for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally past South Dakota State, 8-7, Sunday afternoon in the final game of a four-game baseball series at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

The Vaqueros, who won the final three games of the series, improved to 6-7 overall. SDSU dropped to 2-9.

SDSU held leads of 6-1 and 7-4 before faltering down the stretch. The Jackrabbits evened the game at 1-all in the top of the second on a solo home run by Luke Ira to lead off the inning, then took the lead later in the frame on a run-scoring double by Landon Badger that scored Matt Krambeck.

Drew Beazley continued his hot hitting with an RBI double in the top of the third and SDSU added three more runs in the fourth. Carson Max, Krambeck and Badger opened the fourth with consecutive singles before two runs scored on a throwing error and Ryan McDonald plated the final run with a base hit to left.

UTRGV began to chip away at the deficit with three runs of its own in the home half of the fourth on only one hit. SDSU starter Brady Stover retired the first two batters of the inning before issuing four consecutive walks, the last of which forced in a run. Conrado Diaz recorded the lone hit of the frame, a single to right field that scored two to cut the SDSU lead to 6-4.

Brett Mogen came on to record the final out of the fourth and followed with two more scoreless innings in his second appearance of the weekend.

The Jackrabbits put runners at second and third with no outs in both the seventh and eighth innings, but could only add one run to their lead. SDSU came up empty in the seventh, but managed to push one run across in the eighth for a 7-4 lead as Ryan McDonald scored on a wild pitch. The Jackrabbits stranded a season-high 13 runners.

Jacob Hirsh stared the UTRGV rally in the eighth against SDSU closer Bret Barnett with a double to left field. Hirsh later scored on a wild pitch, while Diaz came through with a single up the middle for his third RBI of the game to pull the Vaqueros to within a run at 7-6. Beazley then entered in relief, but Freddy Rojas Jr. greeted the Jackrabbit right-hander with a game-tying single through the right side. Christian Sepulveda then scored on a wild pitch for what proved to be the game-winning run.

Ricky Gerik Jr. retired the side in order in the ninth to earn the save.

UTRGV held a 10-9 advantage in hits as Hirsh and Andy Atwood joined Diaz with two hits. Josh Falk and Badger each tallied a pair of hits for the Jackrabbits.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits make a return trip to Minnesota for a matchup Wednesday night at the Golden Gophers. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at U.S. Bank Stadium.

NOTES

UTRGV leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1977, 35-2
SDSU dropped to 1-4 in one-run games this season
Mogen lowered his season earned run average to 0.64 after pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings in his two appearances during the series
Falk ended the series 7-for-15 (.467 average) with two doubles, two home runs and five runs batted in
Falk has hit safely in five consecutive games
Beazley batted .429 (6-for-14) with four runs scored and four RBIs in the four-game series
Beazley has reached base safely in each of the last seven games
Ira became the eighth different Jackrabbit to hit a home run this season
SDSU hit a home run in each of the four games of the series; the last time the Jackrabbits hit home runs in four consecutive games was between April 14 and 20, 2019, in games against North Dakota State (1), Minnesota (1) and Western Illinois (2)
The Jackrabbits were 7-of-8 in stolen-base attempts in the series