The UTRGV Vaqueros fell 4-2 to the Houston Christian Huskies on Saturday night, eliminating the Vaqueros from the Southland Conference tournament.

UTRGV won earlier in the day, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 10-4 to move on to face the Huskies.

UTRGV took a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth (Note: UTRGV was designated as the away team for tournament purposes despite playing at home) but gave up three runs to Houston Christian in the ensuing half inning.

The Vaqueros stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth needing two runs to tie the game. Isaac Lopez stepped to the plate, with Southland Conference Player of the Year Armani Raygoza standing in the on-deck circle representing the tying run. If Lopez could get on, that would’ve given Raygoza, who had already hit two home runs earlier in the day against the Islanders, a chance to even the score.

With a full count, Lopez grounded one to short for an easy 6-3 groundout to seal the victory for the Huskies.

“What a good team, what a great year they’ve put together,” Vaqueros head coach Derek Matlock said of his ballclub after the loss. “What a great job by the Valley supporting us and our guys playing their butts off. Two tough games today to fight and get this thing almost to the last game.”

The Vaqueros season isn’t officially over yet, as they await the decision from the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee on whether they’ll receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.

“You don’t know what they’re gonna do,” Coach Matlock said of the selection process. “When you start saying UTRGV, how many people on the committee even know who we are? But when they look at the wins against Dallas Baptist, Texas Tech, Houston, Texas State… Maybe we’ll be still standing in there.”

Houston Christian will host New Orleans in a best-of-three series starting on Thursday to decide the Southland Conference tournament champion.