STEPHENVILLE — Tarleton State fell to UTRGV on Sunday at the Tarleton State Baseball Complex, but due to other results around the conference, the Texans still clinched a share of the WAC regular season championship.
The Texans (33-17, 11-4 WAC) are tied in wins with California Baptist, who just played their final WAC series, finishing 11-7. Tarleton State has three or more wins than any other team across the WAC, with three games left to play. With Tarleton State’s final series next week at Sacramento State, the Texans need just one win to clinch an outright WAC regular season championship.
On Mother’s Day in Stephenville, the Texans fell 4-2 against UTRGV (26-27), still winning the series but falling short of a sweep.
The Texans collected seven hits on the day, led by multi-hit performances from Jake Tatom and Raphael Smeenk. Rayner Heinrich added a triple and an RBI, while Cage McCloud brought home a run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning.
Tarleton State tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth after Slade McCloud scored on Cage McCloud’s sacrifice fly, but UTRGV answered with a run in the fifth and added two more in the sixth to take control.
The Texans cut the deficit to two in the seventh after Heinrich drew an RBI walk, but UTRGV’s bullpen held Tarleton State scoreless over the final two innings to secure the win.
On the mound, Anthony Treto struck out three across 1.1 innings of relief, while Cort Lowry, Corbin Walter, and Tai Phetluangsy combined to keep the Vaqueros scoreless over the final three frames.
UTRGV reliever Mason Engel (1-1) earned the win after allowing one run on one hit with two walks and one strikeout across three innings, while Ashton Bassett (1-4) was charged with the loss for Tarleton State after allowing one unearned run with two strikeouts in 1.1 innings of work.
Tarleton State will return to action Thursday at 8 p.m. CT to open its final conference series of the regular season against Sacramento State at John Smith Field in Sacramento. The Texans have won eight straight conference games, and are a win away from their first outright conference regular season championship in their D1 era.
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