The Texas
A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team knocked off a Big 12 team for
the first time since the 2005 season snapping a seven-game losing
streak with a 7-5 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night at
Whataburger Field.
With the win,
the Islanders moved to 5-15 on the season, while the Red Raiders
drop to 8-11. The win was the fourth all-time for A&M-Corpus
Christi against a Big 12 school and the first since the Islanders
downed
Oklahoma State 2-1 in 15 innings at Fairgrounds Field on Feb. 25,
2005. It was the Islanders first win in 10 attempts against Texas
Tech.
The Islanders
fell behind when the Red Raiders plated an unearned run in the top
of the third inning thanks to a pair of errors by A&M-Corpus
Christi starting pitcher Andrew Toppert. Toppert went five innings,
giving up one unearned run on three hits. He walked two and struck out five Red
Raider batters before giving way to Brett Carnline, who allowed a
run on three hits in two innings of work.
"Andrew really
commanded the strike zone tonight," said Islander head coach Scott
Malone. "He really went after their guys and the only time he got
in trouble was when he had two errors.
"He gave us the
start that we desperately needed to help get out of this slide.
Brett really pitched with a lot of energy. He may not have had
Toppert's command, but I felt he gave us a lot of energy with his
performance."
The Islanders
responded in the bottom of the fifth to make it 1-1. With one out in the inning, Stephen
Flora reached base on a walk, stole second base and came around to
score on a Martin Parra single through the left side to tie the
score.
The Red Raiders
scored one run in the top of the sixth inning to regain a 2-1
lead. After leading off the
inning with a single and advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt,
Scott LeJeune crossed the plate on a double down the line in left
by Taylor Ashby.
The Islanders
responded with three runs in the bottom half of the sixth to take
their first lead of the game. Weston Montgomery singled to the
shortstop and advanced to third base on an Ernie Olivarez single
through the right side. Brycen Bell followed with a double down the
left field line to score Montgomery and put runners at second and
third with Flora coming to the plate.
Tech elected to
intentionally walk Flora to load the bases. After a strikeout by Jacob Perales,
Parra made the Red Raiders pay with a two-run single to center
field, scoring both Olivarez and Bell to put the Islanders up
4-2.
"When Parra's
hit gave us a two-run advantage it felt like the gorilla jumped off
our back," said Malone. "We had been trying for so long to get the
two-out hit that it was causing us a lot of tension. Once he got
that hit it seemed to loosen us up at the plate."
The Islanders
added to their lead in the bottom of the seventh when they plated
three more runs.
Trey Hernandez
started off the action with a one-out walk off Brian Cloud.
Montgomery followed with a single to center to put runners at first
and second. Olivarez singled to load the bases for Bell. Bell came up with a big single
to score pinch runner Chris Famiglietti and Hernandez to put TAMUCC
up 6-2 with runners on first and second. After an attempted double steal saw
Bell thrown at out second with Olivarez advancing to third, Flora
reached on a throwing error by the third baseman to plate Olivarez
and put the lead at 7-2 Islanders.
After getting a
single run in the eighth off Brett Gibson, the Red Raiders made it
interesting with two runs in the ninth, but Bryant Sparkman, who
came on in relief in the eighth, did enough to earn his first save
of the season. Sparkman hit Joey Kenworthy to start the inning and
went to second on a hit by Chris Richburg. After getting LeJeune to
line into a double play, Sparkman gave up a two-run home run to
Justin Berry. Ashby followed with his second double of the game
before Jeremy Mayo popped up to short to end the game.
Bell led the
Islanders with three hits on the night as they finished with
12. Bell and Parra each
knocked in three RBI to pace the Islanders. Parra, Justin Greiner, Montgomery and
Olivarez added two hits apiece for TAMUCC. Michael Reed, Ashby and
Kenworthy each had a pair of hits for the Red Raiders.
Brett Carnline
got the win for the Islanders, pitching two innings in relief,
giving up one run on three hits. He struck out two while walking none.
Brett Gibson pitched in relief, going two-thirds of an inning,
giving up one run on no hits while walking three batters. Sparkman finished off the game,
pitching one and one-third innings, giving up two runs, both
earned, on three hits.
"We've been
saying we need to get some positive momentum going and hopefully
tonight give us some," said Malone.
