THIBODAUX, La. – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi baseball team tripled its offensive output from the first two games of the Southland Conference series against Nicholls for a 6-1 win as Daniel Minor dominated the Colonel batters.
The win improves the Islanders record to 12-16 overall, and they are now 5-7 in league games. The Colonels move to 16-12 on the year, 6-6 in conference play. The win snapped a four-game losing streak.
Minor came up big again for the Texas A&M – Corpus Christi pitching staff, tossing a complete game while giving up just one run on three hits to improve his record to 5-1 on the year. In his second complete game of the year, Minor struck out 10 batters and walked none. It was his third game this season with 10-or-more strikeouts, getting a career-high 14 against UTSA, and also fanning 10 against Southeastern Louisiana two weeks ago.
Offensively, the Islanders responded with six in the game after plating just two in the previous two games combined. Jonathan Gonzales got things started with his fifth home run of the season, while Eric Weiss and Dan Sciantarelli also added RBI in the game.
After a scoreless game into the fourth, Gonzales took a 2-0 pitch over the left field fence for his fifth homer of the year and a 1-0 Islanders lead.
Texas A&M – Corpus Christi added three more runs in the fifth on two hits and an error to make it a 4-0 game. Brad Porras walked to lead off the inning, while Stafford Brantley singled through the right side on a hit-and-run to put runners on first and third. Santiago Ruiz grounded out to third to move Brantley to second, but Porras had to stay on third with the play right next to him.
Sciantarelli drove in Porras with a sacrifice fly to score the first run of the inning, while Brantley advanced to third on the play. Drew Vest followed by reaching on an error that also scored Brantley to extend the inning. After Vest stole second base, Weiss singled through the left side to plate the runner for a 4-0 score.
Two more runs in the sixth would finish the scoring for the Islanders. Jeramie Marek led off with a single, and then came around to score when Jordan Lee singled to right field and advanced to second on an error by the right fielder. Porras followed with a single to move Lee to third.
After a pitching change by the Colonels, Brantley walked to load the bases. Santiago Ruiz hit into a double play, but Lee was able to score to make it a 6-0 game.
Nicholls scored a single run in the bottom of the sixth, but it was all they would get off of Minor as he got the final 10 batters in order, including four K's, to finish the game.
Next up for Texas A&M – Corpus Christi will be a weekend series against the Texas State Bobcats. The two teams will play a 6 p.m. game on Thursday, 6 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday due to the Easter holiday.
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