LUBBOCK – In the first game of a two-game set in Lubbock, the
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team battled tooth-and-nail
with the Texas Tech before a four-run frame in the bottom of the
seventh inning pushed the Red Raiders to a 6-1 lead on Tuesday
night at Dan Law Field.
The loss snaps
a three-game winning streak for the Islanders who swept Nicholls
State over the weekend in a Southland Conference series and are now
8-19 on the season. With the win the Red Raiders move to 15-12.
The two teams
will meet again on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The game time was moved up
an hour from its originally scheduled time of 3 p.m. as the
Islanders will fly back after the game.
Leading 2-1
heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Red Raiders scored four
runs on three hits and a pair of walks by Trey Hernandez to take a
6-1 lead. Joey Kenworthy drew a walk to lead off the inning and
moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Willie Rueda. After the
Islanders intentionally walked Roger Kieschnick, Monk Kreder
singled to drive in Kenworthy.
Hernandez (0-5)
pitched 6-1/3 innings scattering six hits. He allowed five earned
runs, walked four and struck out three.
Matt Hudec
relieved Hernandez and balked to let the second run score. Doug
Thennis, who had three runs batted in on the evening and Chris Hall
each singled to drive in the final two runs of the inning. Hudec
lasted less than an inning before being replaced by Jacob Perez.
Perez pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Thennis pushed
the Red Raiders out to an early 2-0 lead with RBIs in the first and
third innings.
The Islanders
struggled early and didn't get a runner to second base until the
sixth inning. Russ Fornea (3-2) limited the visitors to four hits
in 5-2/3 innings while striking out three and walking one.
The Islanders
had a couple of missed opportunities in the first five innings. In
the first, Hernandez lined a one-out single, but was thrown out trying to turn it into a
double. In the second and fifth innings, Brycen Bell reached with a
pair of singles but was erased both times as Justin Greiner hit
into a pair of double plays.
A&M-Corpus
Christi finally hit pay dirt in the sixth.
In the top of
the sixth, Bryan Gerondale led off the inning moved to second on a
sacrifice bunt by Paul Saville. After Fornea fanned Chase Wheaton
for the second out, Trey Hernandez, who singled in the first but
was thrown out trying to go for a double, walked. Stephen Flora was
hit by a pitch by Fornea, who left the game after the pitch, to
load the bases. Jacob Perales earned an RBI the hard way as he was
hit by a pitch by reliever Owen Brolsma. The bases remained loaded
for Martin Parra, who hit a grounder to third ending the
inning.
"Trey gave us a
quality start," said Islander head coach Scott Malone.
"Offensively, we just couldn't get anything going early. We
couldn't string the hits together when we had runners in scoring
position. They did and that was the difference in the game."
