CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team came up just short in a very competitive game against Lamar on Saturday afternoon, going back and forth throughout the day but ultimately dropping by a final score of 7-3.
Bucking a trend from each of their previous four games, the Islanders (11-11, 1-6 SLC) conceded the first run of the day to the Cardinals (13-10, 7-4 SLC), allowing the visitors to get on the board right away on a leadoff home run off the bat of designated hitter Beau Durbin. Their first response to this score would end up coming in the third inning, when they finally managed to break through against three-time Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week Chris Olivier. This rally came all with two outs, as after a pair of strikeouts to lead off the frame, junior
Isaiah Afework and graduate
Cade Sanchez put traffic on the bases with a single and a walk respectively. An error on the next plate appearance would prolong the inning and load the bases, and with a chance to capitalize, senior
Jackson Smith was hit on the foot by an 0-2 breaking ball to pick up the RBI and knot things up at one apiece.
On the mound, A&M-Corpus Christi saw senior
Luke Singleton shake off the early longball very well, nearly matching Olivier's production through the first four innings before seeing one of his inherited runners score after departing with two outs in the fifth. The lefty still managed to finish 4.2 frames of two-run ball while matching the team's single-game season high in strikeouts with seven, though, doing so while allowing just four hits and a walk to put together a solid effort in what was his first start since April 2 of last year. The Islanders' offense would end up taking him off the hook for the loss after he exited as well, responding to Lamar's go-ahead run with two of their own in the bottom half of the same frame on a two-out RBI single by redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert and an RBI double off the wall in right by Smith immediately after to put the hosts ahead 3-2.
Unfortunately for the Islanders, though, the pendulum would swing back Lamar's way, with the Cardinals scoring one run in the sixth to tie the game and then two in both the seventh and eighth to take the lead and then extend their cushion. Their best chance at putting together another rally of their own came in the bottom of the sixth, when a
Jayden Reynolds walk, a
Christian Smith-Johnson hit-by-pitch and a
Jack Bergstrom sacrifice bunt placed two runners in scoring position with just one out, but they would fail to capitalize on this chance and then go down quietly the last third of the game to take home the loss in the second of three games this weekend.
The majority of the production in the Islanders lineup came from the top five hitters in their order, as Afework, Sanchez, Flaggert, Smith and junior
Max Towchik all picked up a knock apiece to finish with five of the team's six hits overall. Smith and Flaggert would drive in their only runs of the day, and Smith and freshman
Jake Barron recorded both of their extra-base hits with one double each.
The Islanders will now try one more time to earn the series victory over Lamar, returning for the rubber match of the set on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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