Five Vaqueros Just Won a Championship Together. Now They’re Bringing It to Edinburg.

By Diamond DITV | Fan Perspective

If you’re a UTRGV baseball fan looking for something to feel good about in the middle of August, here you go.

Five Vaqueros just won a championship together.

And some of them were right in the middle of winning the whole thing.

The Saskatoon Berries are Western Canadian Baseball League champions after sweeping the Sylvan Lake Gulls in the championship series, and five players connected to UTRGV’s 2027 roster were part of it: Gael Salinas, Merek Yeager, Brooks Jones, Zachary Landreville and Augie Grohman.

That alone would be a pretty cool summer baseball story.

Then you look at what these guys actually did.

When Saskatoon opened the championship series, Landreville got the ball.

All he did was throw 5.2 innings, allow three hits and one run and strike out five in a 4-1 Berries win.

One game later, Saskatoon had a chance to win its first championship.

This time, another future Vaquero was on the mound.

Yeager went six innings, allowed one run and struck out four as the Berries rolled to an 11-1 win and finished off the championship.

So let’s put that into UTRGV terms.

The winning pitcher in Game 1 of the championship series was a Vaquero.

The winning pitcher in the championship-clinching Game 2 was a Vaquero.

That’s pretty cool.

Brooks Jones wasn’t exactly sitting around watching them do it.

Jones put together an excellent summer out of the bullpen, finishing the regular season with a 1.75 ERA, 33 strikeouts and two saves in just over 25 innings.

Then he kept it going when the games mattered most.

Jones pitched scoreless relief in Game 1 of the championship series. The next night, he came back and threw two hitless innings while striking out five.

That’s three UTRGV arms making an impact in the two biggest games of Saskatoon’s season.

Somehow, we haven’t even talked about the guy who hit .419.

Gael Salinas didn’t just have a good summer. He won the WCBL batting title.

Salinas hit .419 over 54 games, collecting 88 hits, scoring 69 runs and driving in 60. He added 18 doubles and six home runs and finished the summer with a .523 on-base percentage.

That’s a summer.

Nobody should expect those numbers to automatically carry over when college baseball returns. But if you’re a UTRGV fan, a player coming to Edinburg after winning a collegiate summer league batting title is certainly worth getting excited about.

Then there’s Augie Grohman, the fifth Vaquero on Saskatoon’s championship roster. Grohman is already familiar to UTRGV fans after pitching for the Vaqueros. He began his summer with the Brazos Valley Bombers before eventually joining the Berries and finishing the summer as a champion.

But take the individual numbers out of it for a second.

This might be the part I like most.

These guys spent their summer playing together.

They went through the grind of a summer season. They played meaningful games down the stretch. They went through a postseason together. And when there was a championship on the line, they won it.

How much will that matter when UTRGV starts building toward the 2027 season?

We’ll find out.

Summer success doesn’t guarantee anything once the college season starts. But there’s something to be said for having a group of guys walk into the same clubhouse already knowing what it’s like to play together with something on the line.

These weren’t guys hiding at the bottom of the roster while Saskatoon made its run.

Landreville and Yeager were trusted with the baseball in the two biggest games of the season.

Jones was lights out behind them.

Salinas was the best hitter in the league.

Grohman finished the summer celebrating a championship alongside them.

Now, instead of everyone going their separate ways when the summer ends, they’re headed to the same place.

Edinburg.

There’s a long way to go before we know what UTRGV baseball will look like in 2027.

But five Vaqueros showing up with championship rings isn’t a bad place to start.