CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi baseball team continued its hot streak on Friday night, beating the UNLV Rebels by a 3-1 final behind the pitching of a trio of Islanders and a big night from freshman Kyle Danford.
The Islanders are now 5-1 on the season with the victory, while UNLV falls to 2-3. Adam Hoelscher picked up his second win of the season, pitching six innings while giving up just two hits and his first run of the year, which was unearned. He walked two batters while striking out four. Trevor Foss pitched two innings of one-hit ball to preserve the lead while Phillip Garcia came on for his second save of the year.
In the first inning, the Islanders quickly got two outs before starting a rally for the early lead. After a groundout and a strikeout in front of him, Bobby Buckner tripled into the right-field corner and was brought home to score on a Danford single to centerfield to make it a 1-0 game.
The score remained the same until the top of the sixth, with UNLV plating an unearned run to even it at 1-1.
The tie did not last long as the Islanders bounced back with one in the bottom half of the inning. Dan Sciantarelli reached on an error by the first baseman, and was followed by a Jeramie Marek walk. Both runners moved up on a hit-and-run that was executed nicely by Eric Weiss. After Bobby Buckner was intentionally walked, Danford hit a slow roller down the third-base line. The fielder let the ball roll to see if it would go foul, but it tight-roped the line for an RBI-single on the infield to make it a 2-1 game.
Foss came on afterwards and allowed just one hit through two innings of work while striking out three batters.
Texas A&M – Corpus Christi added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning on yet another Danford RBI. Weiss led things off by reaching on an error, and advanced to second on a stolen base. Danford then came through again, hitting a ball up the middle for an RBI single to make it a 3-1 advantage.
That would be all Garcia needed, as he came on to work a perfect ninth, getting the first batter on a strikeout looking, a groundout to first base, and finally a fly ball to left to end the game.
Next up for the Islanders will be a 7 p.m. contest against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday night at Whataburger Field in the second game of the Kleberg Bank College Classic. Tim Keller is scheduled to start against Tom Lemke of Nebraska.
Live stats and video will be available through www.GoIslanders.com.
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