In the first two seasons under head coach Scott Malone, the
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team had given its rival UTSA
its best shot. On Thursday, the Islanders struggled falling 19-5 to
the Roadrunners in the opening game of their Easter weekend
series.
"Since I have been here UTSA has been a rival and we have always
given them our best shot," said the Islander head coach, who 6-3
versus UTSA coming into the series. "Tonight we didn't get that out
of our guys."
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-15, 3-7) fell behind early
against the visitors from UTSA (11-13, 2-8) as the Roadrunners
scored three times in the top of the first and chased Islander
starter Roy Ferdin (2-2) from the game with two outs in the second.
Ferdin allowed four runs with two earned on six hits.
UTSA led 4-0 after 1-1/2 innings before A&M-Corpus Christi
got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. With two away,
Jeremie Marek singled home Bobby Buckner making the score 4-1.
Trailing 5-1 heading into the fourth, the Islanders pulled to
within three as Chris Vergne scored on a sacrifice fly.
UTSA responded with three runs in the fifth off Brett Gibson.
Ryan Hutson led the inning off with his first of two home runs and
Jeff Taliaferro later added a two-run single.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Caleb Marx walked with
one away and Trey Hernandez singled. Vergne came up next plating
two-runs on a single down the line to right cutting the lead to
four. The Islanders threatened to score more runs but both Omar
Garcia and Vergne were retired at home.
UTSA broke open the game in the sixth inning scoring 11 runs to
take a 19-4 lead. The Roadrunners had four home runs in the inning
and eight hits total off three Islander relievers.
"It was like a bad rollercoaster that kept spiraling down," said
Malone. "As a coach you have to keep an even keel. We need to come
back tomorrow and stop the rollercoaster."
Trey Hernandez belted his tenth home run of the season in the
seventh with two outs for the final run.
A&M-Corpus Christi finished with nine hits led by Marek with
two. UTSA finished with 20 hits led by Hutson, Ryan Rummel and Ryan
Dalton with three each. Hutson had five RBI and Dalton four. Daniel
Rockett scored three runs for the hosts.
Casey Selsor earned the win moving to 4-2 on the season. He had
five strikeouts in the game.
The two teams meet again tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Whataburger
Field.
