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For Immediate
Release: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 BRONCS DOWN IONA, 14-2 EDINBURG, TX-For the second consecutive game, The University of Texas-Pan American's baseball team received a dominating pitching performance. Sophomore Ricky Anderson (Corinth, TX/Lake Dallas HS/North Central Texas College) followed senior righthander Travis Parker's (Brownsville, TX/Hanna HS/UT-Brownsville) solid performance Monday night with one of his own Tuesday afternoon, as the Broncs defeated Iona, 14-2, in the finale of their three-game series at the Edinburg Baseball Stadium. Anderson, who had pitched a total of seven innings in his previous three appearances, pitched eight innings Tuesday. He allowed two runs and five hits, walking three and striking out two, before being replaced by junior Ben DiOrio (Canon City, CO/Canon City HS/Seward County CC) for the ninth inning. The Broncs wasted no time taking the lead. For the second game in a row, senior designated hitter Bruce Kennedy led off the first inning with a triple. He scored when Iona center fielder Kevin Sorhaindo's throw sailed beyond third base. Texas-Pan American broke the game open in the third inning. With one out, Kennedy reached on a bunt single, and moved up on a wild pitch. Sophomore shortstop Marco Garza (Mission, TX/Sharyland HS) singled, and junior third baseman Matt Sisk (Fort Worth, TX/Arlington Heights HS/New Mexico) walked to load the bases. Sophomore first baseman Tony Ortiz (Fort Worth, TX/Nolan HS) singled home a run, another scored on a wild pitch, sophomore catcher Matt Eichel (Grapevine, TX/Grapevine HS) doubled home two more runs, freshman left fielder Louie Alamia (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North HS) and junior second baseman Aldo Alonzo (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg HS/UT-Brownsville) each singled in a run, and it was 6-0. Kennedy and Ortiz later doubled home two more runs each, and another scored on a single by Garza. The Broncs scored a run in the sixth on an error, and added another run in the seventh on a pinch-hit single by sophomore Omar Pena (Mission, TX/Mission HS). Iona scored single runs in the fifth and eighth. Second baseman Mark Zettl drove in the Gaels' first run with a sacrifice fly, and left fielder Lawrence Taylor's infield hit knocked in the second. Alamia's hit UTPA scored a single run in the fourth, when sophomore center fielder John Lopez (Mission, TX/Mission HS) walked with the bases loaded, and added another run in the fifth when Alamia drew a bases-loaded walk. Alamia's hit allowed him to extend his hitting streak to 19 games. He is three games away from tying the all-time Broncs' record of 22 games, set by Joel Hernandez during the 1975 season. Kennedy finished with four hits in five at-bats, while Ortiz drove in three runs. "Ricky did a great job," said UTPA Head Coach Willie Gawlik. "He got ahead early in the count, got them to hit a lot of ground balls, and this is really the first time he's been healthy enough to pitch, He had an ACL injury as a freshman, and he's just getting over it. It was nice to see two great pitching performances back to back. Actually, all of our starters pitched well this weekend. We had a great weekend, going 4-1 and sweeping a good Iona team." Anderson earned the win and improved to 1-0. Iona starter Luke Lambo took the loss and fell to 0-2. Texas-Pan American improved to 14-13 with the victory, their third in a row and fourth in five games, while Iona fell to 1-6 with the defeat. The Broncs will take the next week off from competition, and return to action hen they visit Southwest Texas State March 25th.
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