Jags take down No. 2 seed Louisiana Christian in RRAC quarterfinal

STERLINGTON, La. – UHV's bats came alive Saturday in the second game of the Red River Athletic Conference baseball tournament.

The Jaguars took down second-seeded Louisiana Christian 13-2 in seven innings to advance to the tournament semifinals. UHV will face top-seeded and No. 2-ranked LSU-Shreveport at 5 p.m. Sunday for a spot in Monday's championship.

UHV (24-25) scored all of its runs after Louisiana Christian scored two runs in the top of the first inning.

"We got punched in the mouth when we gave up two runs in the first and answered right back," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "We kept answering back. We got runners on early, we had great ABs and we kept pushing runs across. Great hitting. I can't say enough about it."

Raul Lopez, Westley Schields and Haldemel Perez led the way for UHV's offense. All three finished 3-for-5 at the plate with Lopez tallying three RBIs, and Schields and Perez providing one. Ty Williams had two RBIs on one hit.

Lopez opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first. The senior from El Paso followed that the next inning with a two-run double in the second to give the Jaguars a 4-2 lead.

"I knew we had to get ahead," Lopez said. "We got down, so we had to come back. We knew we would need runs today and we got them."

Julian DeLeon and Jose Montanez each went 2-for-3 in the game. DeLeon capped the Jaguars' scoring in the fifth inning with a two-run double.

UHV was able to chase the Wildcats (35-14) starting pitcher Beau Hebert out of the game in the second inning following Lopez's two-run double.

"The guys who have been starting all year are coming around and the guys that don't always start came up big," Stavinoha said. "It's next man up. If you have something that's keeping a guy out, you plug in and play. I can't say enough about what they did tonight."

Freshman Brady Parker settled in to throw five scoreless innings after LCU scored to open the game.

The Victoria East product picked up his seventh win of the season with six strikeouts in six innings of work.

"Us tying the game really helped me," Parker said. "It made me realize we were still in the game and we can win this. We were getting runs almost every inning. That makes you want to pitch even better."