CORPUS CHRISTI – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Baseball team rallied from four runs down in the game, but they were not able to come back a second time as Lamar claimed a 10-7 victory to even the Southland Conference series at one game apiece. The rubber game is set for a 1 p.m. start on Senior Day at Chapman Field.
The Islanders (29-21, 14-9 Southland) led early on and then fell behind by four runs before a Jonathan Gonzales grand slam tied it up at 6-6 in the seventh, but Lamar would go on to score four more to put the game out of reach. O'Shea Dumes (1-2) was tagged with the loss after giving up three runs on three hits while recording just two outs.
Jordan Lee and Eric Weiss both had three hits on the day, while Brad Porras had two on Saturday. Cody Stephens, Jonathan Gonzales, Kyle Danford and Jacob Hubert had one hit each. Gonzales had the big day with four RBI on the first grand slam of his career, while Lee, Weiss and Porras had one apiece.
The game was scoreless until the third inning, with Brad Lamberti drawing a leadoff walk, and then moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by Stephens. Lee followed with his second hit of the game to plate Lamberti for the first run of the game and a 1-0 lead.
The Cardinals tied the game with two soft singles and a sacrifice fly to even it up at 1-1 in the top of the fourth.
It did not take long for that to change however, as Porras blasted his third home run of the season on the first pitch in the bottom half of the inning to make it a 2-1 game. Porras launched it over the left field wall and placed it on top of the berm beyond the fence.
Lamar came right back with three runs, one of them unearned, in the top of the fifth to take their first lead of the series at 4-2. They added two unearned runs in the top of the sixth to extend the advantage to 6-2.
The Islanders had their chances in both the fifth and sixth innings, but they left a pair of runners stranded in each frame, as they were unable to close the gap.
That would not be the case in the bottom of the seventh inning. Stephens started things off by reaching on an error, moved to second on a single by Lee and Weiss loaded the bases on a single to left.
That set the stage for Gonzales, who hammered a 1-0 pitch over the left center field wall for the first grand slam of his career and his fifth home run of the season to make it 6-6.
The Islanders could not complete the comeback however, allowing four runs on five hits in the top of the 8th as Lamar regained a four-run advantage at 10-6.
Weiss picked up his fourth home run of the season to open the bottom of the ninth, and the Islanders got the tying run to the plate twice, but they were unable to get any more as they fell by a 10-7 final against the Cardinals.
The Sunday contest will feature Matt Danton starting for the Islanders, while Lamar has yet to announce a starter for the game. It will also be Senior Day for 10 players, with Stafford Brantley, Eric Weiss, Trevor Foss, Adam Hoelscher, Tim Keller, Jonathan Gonzales, Franco Pace, Tim Beard, Brad Porras and Seth Horton being honored before the game for their time as an Islander.
Live stats and video of the game will be available by visiting www.GoIslanders.com.
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