The Victoria Generals made it nine wins in a row as they crushed the Seguin River Monsters at home Tuesday evening, 17-4. It is Victoria’s longest winning streak of the year and the Generals moved to 29-12 in the Texas Collegiate League.

Victoria plated three runs in the opening inning. Third baseman Justin Vossos capitalized on a bases loaded situation with a one-out single through the left side of the infield that drove in two runs. Lead runner Damien Whitfield scored from third and Reece Lunsford scored from second on the play. Two batters later, first baseman Travis Bragg hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Cole Tabor from third.

Victoria padded its lead with two more runs in the second. A two-out triple by Lunsford accounted for the first run of the frame. In the subsequent at-bat, Lunsford scored on a wild pitch to give the Generals a commanding 5-0 lead. 

Two more General runs crossed the plate in the third thanks to a two-run single to center off the bat of Bragg. Two batters later, Bragg motored around to score from first on a two-out double by No. 9 hitter Lane Epperson that found the gap in right center. After three full innings, Victoria enjoyed an 8-0 advantage.

Seguin’s David DeHoyos launched a solo home run over the left field fence in the top of the fourth, but Generals starting pitcher Brock Lambert retired the next three batters in order to avoid more damage. Two more Generals runs in the home half of the fourth expanded the lead to 10-1.

Victoria led by as many as 15 as they amassed a 16-1 lead at the end of six. Seguin posted a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth before Victoria scored the final run of the ballgame in the home half of the eighth. Victoria needed only seven hits to compile 17 runs. Generals hitters collected a whopping 17 walks in the contest. Vossos and Whitfield both had two hits apiece, and Bragg recorded a team-high three runs batted in. Lunsford, Vossos and Epperson all notched two RBIs each.

Lambert (6-1) was the winning pitcher. He went six innings and allowed one earned run on five hits with four strikeouts. Seguin’s Isaiah Arteaga suffered the loss. Before the game, Victoria shortstop Diego Diaz was named TCL Player of the Week for the second time this season. He spoke of his club’s winning streak.  

“I’ve only been here during the second half of the season, but yeah, this is the best baseball we’ve played since I’ve been here. We are looking to keep it going. The mindset right now is winning the games that we have so we can make a run in the playoffs,” Diaz said.

Victoria will play the second game of its homestand against Seguin at Riverside Stadium Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.

Robert Brewer is a sports reporter for the Victoria Advocate. You can reach him at robert.brewer@vicad.com.