@NCBearsBaseball Takes Series Against UTPA

Sunday, April 26

Edinburg, Texas

11:00 am

University of Northern Colorado

15-22, 11-7

Texas Pan American

15-25-1, 2-15-1

Northern Colorado

Texas-Pan American

Photo by: Rob Trubia

4/26/2015 5:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

UNC defeated UTPA in a back and forth game Sunday afternoon to win the weekend series

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

EDINGBURG, Texas— Northern Colorado baseball took the rubber match against Texas-Pan American Sunday afternoon 8-7 in a back and forth ball game.

The win gave the Bears (15-22, 11-7 WAC) the series, two games to one to keep them in fourth place in the WAC.

"This was a great weekend for Bears baseball," head coach Carl Iwasaki said. "The team played their best baseball of the year. We persevered with two comeback victories and won the series."

The two teams combined for nine runs on eight hits in the final three innings and changed leads three times.
The first lead change came in the top of the seventh inning when UNC broke the 3-3 tie. It only took one hitter for the Bears to break it, as Jensen Park (Kaneohe, Hawaii) roped his fourth home run of the year to left field to put the team up 4-3.

Park finished the game with a team leading three hits, along with two runs scored and two RBI. Park and Jake Garcia (Albuquerque, N.M.) both had three hits, Garcia was a perfect 3-for-3 today.

UTPA came right back and responded in the bottom half of the inning to take its first lead of the game scoring three runs by taking advantage of back-to-back walks early in the inning to go up, 6-4.

Northern Colorado fought back and took advantage of two UTPA errors in the eighth to take the lead for good. The first three hitters for the Bears reached base safely, including scoring one run to cut the Broncs lead to one.
Jacob Ek reached on a fielder's choice, and advanced to second on an error by the pitcher to score Dan Reese (Casper, Wyo.) as the game-tying run.

Reese scored twice in the game, while going 2-for-4 at the plate.

After another UNC run scored on a ground out by Reyn Sugai (Honolulu, Hawaii), Ek came around to score on a Park single to cap off the team's four-run inning.

The Broncs came up in the bottom of the ninth trailing 8-6. UTPA put one run up with a double, but that is as close as they would get stranding the runner on second when Justin Mulvaley (Arvada, Colo.) got a strike out swinging to end the game.

Mulvaney ended up earning the win to improve his record to 3-1. He pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief allowing just one run on three hits while striking out three.
To start the game, UNC scored first in its ninth consecutive game, as Sugai and Park walked to start the game, and moved into scoring position for BrandonVaughn (Louisville, Colo.).

Sugai came home on a wild pitch and Park was driven home on a Vaughn single to left field to give UNC a 2-0 lead after one.

In the fourth inning, Northern Colorado added another run with two outs.
Reese walked and Garcia singled through the right side to put two on for Ek, who would deliver with an RBI single to score Reese.

UTPA cut into the Bears lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs of its own on one hit to make it a 3-2 game through four. The Broncs tacked on another run in the sixth to even the game up at three.

Northern Colorado will now return home for its last mid-week game of the season against in-state foe Air Force on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Jackson Field.

"We have great momentum going on for us for the remainder of conference play," Iwasaki said. "We want to keep that going when we face Air Force on Tuesday."