No. 14 Jags down USW in Tourney opener for Stavinoha’s 100th career win

STERLINGTON, La. – As they always do, the UHV baseball team wanted to win on Thursday.

It was the Jaguars' opening game of the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament and a win over University of the Southwest would obviously put them one step closer to lifting the championship trophy.

But that arguably wasn't the biggest motivator for UHV. They wanted to get head coach Jonathan Stavinoha his 100^th win.

The 2-seeded Jaguars prevailed 6-5 over the 7-seeded Mustangs in Bracket B of the tournament at the Sterlington Sports Complex and got Stavinoha to the century mark.

"It's awesome," Stavinoha said. "But when you look at it, it's not just me. It's the hard work and effort that everybody in this program has put in from top to bottom. Not only them buying into what I'm teaching, but the great coaches we've had along the way. It's a group effort. A hundred feels great but it feels even better to get win No. 1 of the RRAC Tournament."

His players wanted him to reach the milestone more than he did himself.

"I can't say enough about coach Stav, and how thankful I am for him and everything he does for this program," said senior infielder DeeAndre Torres. "He's a great leader of men and I just cannot say enough how thankful and proud I am to play for him."

Thursday's win didn't come without some drama.

Southwest (25-24) opened the scoring in the second inning on a solo home run by Markham Gonzalez.

UHV responded in the third inning with a four-spot thanks to RBIs by Hal Perez, Terry Burrel and Jose Montanez, whose two-run single put UHV (38-13) up 4-1. Rafael Gutierrez capped the string of five unanswered runs with a solo home run in the fifth, his sixth of the year.

"Answering back is always huge," Stavinoha said. "We did some good things in that (third) inning. We got a guy on, then a couple hits and some big two-out knocks to score a couple more and make a big inning out of it. It really got us moving in the right direction."

Torres led the way at the top of the lineup, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and hits in each of the last three games for the Jaguars. The Eagle Pass native is 7-for-11 at the plate in that time

He and Burrel were the lone Jaguars with multi-hit showings on a day when UHV scattered 10 hits.

"I've just been trying to keep a level head and not get too high or too low," Torres said. "I want to feed of the guys' energy in the dugout and take it one pitch at a time. I always look forward to the next opportunity to do something for my team and get us an advantage in a game and a chance to win."

Junior left-hander Brady Parker earned his eighth win of the season after 5.1 strong innings of work, allowing just three runs on five hits and two walks.

Ryan Rodriguez and Justin Mireles came out of the bullpen behind Parker to seal the win Thursday night. Mireles earned his fourth save of the season and 10^th of his career after tossing two innings with four strikeouts.

"Southwest's hitters were locked in and had great ABs, just jumping on pitches and attacking," Stavinoha said. "Brady just grinded and did what he could to give us a quality start. Then Ryan came out and left a runner stranded in the sixth, and Justin shut the door and got the six-out save. So, I couldn't be happier with their performances."

The two runs allowed out of the bullpen were a break from the trend among UHV relievers, who had not allowed a run in the last three games. Thursday marked the first run allowed by Rodriguez, a redshirt freshman from Needville, in six appearances this season.

The bullpen has taken great pride in putting together strong performances down the stretch for UHV.

"First off, shout out to Rodriguez," Mireles said. "He's a young arm finally getting some experience and coming up big for us.

"I take great pride in our bullpen. Every time I'm in there, I want to give Stav my best. We have a lot of talent down there and it shows when we have these opportunities and give our best stuff."

With the win, UHV advances to the winner's bracket for a meeting at 3 p.m. Friday with Louisiana Christian, who swept the Jaguars in March and beat Texas A&M-Texarkana on Thursday. The winner will advance to Saturday's tournament semifinals

Stavinoha feels his team is in a better spot than when they made the trip to Pineville, Louisiana.

"We all know we didn't play our best baseball when we went to Louisiana Christian and they did the right things all weekend long," Stavinoha said. "We want to get back at them and they're always going to give a good performance. They're always going to play their tails off. So, we just need to come, bring our A-game and do what we do best."