The UTRGV baseball team fell on Friday night in the series opener against Houston Christian.

It's the first loss in conference play this season for the Vaqueros as they fall to 9-1 and Houston Christian moves to 6-1 in SLC action.

UTRGV took the 2-0 lead early in the first inning after RBI hits from Steven Lancia and Jacob Sanchez.

Unfortunately for UTRGV, Houston Christian's Rhett Hendricks quickly responded with a two-run blast in the second inning to even up the score.

Hendricks, the number eight hitter in the Huskies order, proved to be a tough out for UTRGV on Friday night. The junior outfielder gave his team the lead with a two-RBI single in the seventh inning, totaling a season-high four RBI on the evening.

The Vaqueros trailed 6-2 heading into the eighth inning when Isaac Lopez homered to cut the deficit down to three. That home run, however, did not spark the late inning rally that has become a usual sight for UTRGV this baseball season as the Vaqueros fell 6-3.

In addition to suffering their first conference loss of the season, tonight's result snaps an eight-game home winning streak for the Vaqueros.

Despite the loss, Wyatt Wiatrek recorded a quality start in six innings of work, giving up just two earned runs and striking out eight Huskies.

UTRGV will be back in action on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. as they look to bounce back in the second game of the three-game weekend series against the Huskies.