BASEBALL
ARIZONA DEFEATS TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN
Contact: Mike Bond (mibond@panam.edu), UTPA Assistant Sports Information Director

Tucson, Arizona - Arizona (20-15-1) used two big innings to take a 9-4 win over Texas-Pan American (16-27). The Broncs and Wildcats will wrap up the series, Sunday, April 18. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. CST.

Texas-Pan American went to work right away on Arizona. With one out in the first inning, Marco Garza (Jr./Mission, Texas/Sharyland HS) singled through the left side and Tony Ortiz (Jr./Fort Worth, Texas/Nolan HS) singled past third base. A fielder's choice forced Ortiz out, moved Garza to third and placed Mark Rodriguez (Jr./San Antonio, Texas/Howard College) at first. Louie Alamia (So./Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg North HS) ripped a single through the left side to score Garza. The single from Alamia allowed him to reach base for the 52nd straight game.

In the bottom of the first, Brad Boyer led off with a walk and then stole second. Following a pop up, Boyer stole third and came home on a single to right field by Jordan Brown. That tied the game at 1-1. The Wildcats would score eight runs over the next two innings while giving up one run to take a 9-2 lead after three innings.

Texas-Pan American held Arizona to no runs and just three hits over the last five innings. The Broncs would score a run in the sixth and seventh innings.

For UTPA, Garza was 2-for-5 and scored a run, Ortiz was 2-for-4 and drove in one run, while Aaron Flowers (Jr./Rowlett, Texas/Northeast Texas CC) scored two runs. Juan Saenz (Jr./Mission, Texas/Mission HS) gave up five hits, six runs and struck out one batter in two innings to drop to 4-2.

For Arizona, Brown was 2-for-5 and drove in two runs, Bill Rhinehart was 2-for-3, scored two runs and drove in two runs and Jason Donald was 4-for-4. Koley Kolberg gave up nine hits, four runs and struck out seven batters in seven innings to improve to 6-2.

"We had two bad innings and that was the story of the game," said head coach Willie Gawlik. "We didn't play good defense and they hit the ball well in the second and third innings. Chad Linder (Fr./Reklaw, Texas/Rusk HS) and Ryne Foster (Fr./Cedar Park, Texas/Cedar Park HS) did a great job coming out of the bull pen and kept us in the game. With nine guys left on base, we had our opportunities to score runs and we didn't do it."