For Immediate Release: March 29, 2002
Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Director of Athletic Media Relations, (956) 381-2240

BRONCS SPLIT WITH HBU

EDINBURG, TX –The University of Texas-Pan American’s doubleheader against Houston Baptist Friday evening was certainly a tale of two games.

After being held to five hits in a 10-2 loss in the first game, UTPA used a complete-game effort from sophomore righthander Justin Bogy (West Columbia, TX/West Columbia HS) to turn the tables on visiting Houston Baptist, defeating the Huskies, 7-3, and earning a split of their doubleheader at the Edinburg Baseball Stadium.

The Broncs, who broke a streak of 32 scoreless innings by scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth inning in the opener, got the jump on HBU in the nightcap. Junior shortstop Jerome McCoy (Fort Worth, TX/Eastern Hills HS/Northeast Texas CC) led off with a double to left and moved up on a sacrifice by sophomore third baseman Matt Sisk (Fort Worth, TX/Arlington Heights HS/New Mexico).  Senior second baseman Adam Farek’s (Crockett, TX/Crockett HS/Cedar Valley CC) sacrifice fly made it 1-0.

The Broncs added a pair in the second. Junior right fielder Skip Weast (Inola, OK/Inola HS/Crowder JC) led off with a double and moved to third on freshman first baseman Carlos Gallardo’s (Mission, TX/Sharyland HS) infield hit. Freshman catcher Matt Eichel (Grapevine, TX/Grapevine HS) hit a sacrifice fly for one run. One out later, McCoy beat out an infield hit, and Gallardo scored when HBU shortstop Gerald Bueno made an error on the same play.

The Huskies closed the gap in the seventh. Second baseman Jeremy Green homered to lead off the inning. First baseman Tony Palazzolo and designated hitter Bryan Coleman singled. Palazzolo moved up on a fly ball, and scored when catcher Justin Davis beat out an infield hit.

UTPA broke the game open with four runs in their final two at-bats. Freshman left fielder John Lopez (Mission, TX/Mission HS) and Sisk reached on errors to start the seventh, and Farek bounced into a fielder’s choice to score Lopez. Freshman designated hitter Juan Saenz (Mission, TX/Mission HS) ripped a double to right-center to score pinch-runner Marco Garza (Fr. Mission, TX/Sharyland HS). Weast followed with a single to score Saenz. The Broncs added a run in the eighth when Eichel singled, moved up on a walk and a double play, and scored on Bueno’s third error of the game.

“Justin pitched very well,” said UTPA Head Coach Reggie Tredaway. “He didn’t have a high pitch count, so we wanted to let him have a chance to finish. Justin’s a premier pitcher, he’s coming off an injury last year. He got ahead in the count, and pitched very well. In the first game, we were behind in the count, and had to groove it, and, in the second game, it was just the opposite. Justin was ahead, and we were fortunate to get him some runs.”

Bogy allowed seven hits in pitching UTPA’s second complete game victory of the season. He earned the victory and improved to 2-1, while HBU starter Michael Hanks took the defeat and fell to 4-1.

Green’s solo homer in the first was the only run of the opener until the fifth. Then left fielder Craig Bowser singled, and Green, third baseman Joey Gregory, designated hitter Bryan Coleman and Bueno all doubled. Davis then singled to make it 5-0.

HBU added five runs in the sixth. Bowser and Palazzolo had singles, Green and Gregory had doubles, and Bueno hit a two-run homer.

Senior righthander Ed Marko (Chardon, OH/Notre-Dame-Cathedral-Latin/Cleveland State) pitched the first five innings in the opener, and took the loss, falling to 0-1. Logan Cuellar went all the way for HBU to improve to 4-2 in the opener.

With the split, the Broncs are now 7-19, while the Huskies are 23-9.

 UTPA will return to action when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a doubleheader Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

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