Carbondale Reporter

Southern Illinois baseball team secured its first victory of the season with a 7-2 win over Texas Rio Grande Valley on Saturday night in Edinburg, Texas. The game was highlighted by Alec Nigut's impressive performance, pitching five no-hit innings and contributing to a four-run fifth inning that helped the Salukis level the series.

The scoring began after three scoreless innings when Gabe Petrucelli's sacrifice fly brought Kaleb Hall home. In the top of the fifth, Cecil Lofton initiated a rally with an RBI double that scored Justin Keuss. This was followed by runs from Jordan Bach, Matt Schark, and Petrucelli.

Alec Nigut (1-0), making his season debut as a left-handed pitcher from Des Moines, Iowa, completed five innings without allowing a hit. He gave up only two walks and struck out six batters.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, UTRGV's Damien Whitfield doubled to give his team runners on second and third with no outs. However, Saluki reliever Gavan Wernsing managed to limit UTRGV to just one run by retiring three consecutive batters.

Michael Mylott extended Southern Illinois' lead with an RBI double in the eighth inning—his third hit of the night. Although Jacob Sanchez hit a solo home run for UTRGV in their half of the eighth inning, they conceded another run due to a throwing error in the ninth that allowed Schark to score.

Sam Frizzi successfully closed out the game for Southern Illinois by retiring all three Vaqueros he faced in the ninth inning.

UTRGV starter Victor Loa (0-1) exited after pitching three innings and allowing two runners on base at the start of the fourth inning.

Mylott led Southern Illinois with three hits following his strong performance on Friday where he had three RBIs.

The teams are set to play again Sunday for their weekend series finale at noon, which will be broadcasted on ESPN Plus.