Longoria earns conference and national weekly honors

UHV junior Mason Longoria kicked off the 2024 baseball season in a huge way.

The right-hander from Victoria threw a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win over Wayland Baptist to open the season on Saturday. Along the way, he struck out eight batters while surrendering only three hits and two walks.

The Jaguars went on to sweep the season-opening four-game set from the Pioneers and improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2008.

Longoria was named Pitcher of the Week by the Red River Athletic Conference and NAIA Ball for his performance.

"I'm grateful for this recognition," Longoria said. "I'm happy I was able to do my part to put our team in a position to win, but I couldn't do this without my teammates. We needed each other to come up in the clutch, like Levi (Whitlock) in the sixth to score the winning run."

UHV had been held scoreless for the first 5.2 innings before Whitlock came home on a wild pitch in the sixth to score the game's only run.

The eight strikeouts by Longoria match the second-most in his time with the Jaguars. The complete game was the fourth of his career.

Dating back to the 2023 postseason, Longoria has won three of his last four starts with the Jaguars winning each of those four games.

"Mason really set the tone for us in the Wayland series," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "To throw a complete-game shutout with eight strikeouts in the opener is huge for us. It set us up to get the sweep. He put in a lot of hard work this offseason, and it showed last week."

The Jaguars host Mid-America Christian University in a four-game series at Riverside Stadium, starting with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday.