Dominant Pitching Leads Islanders to Opening Day Win

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Opening games of the season generally a time for players to manage early season nerves and knocking off the rust from the offseason. For Islanders starting pitcher Liz Carter, opening day belong to the junior righty. After surrendering an unearned run in the first, Carter held Iowa hitless for five innings.

Needing an offensive spark in the bottom of the sixth, freshman Candice Hadd notched her first career hit with bases loaded to plate the decisive runs, as the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball team defeated Iowa, 2-1, on opening day of the 2016 season.

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The Islanders (1-0) fell behind early in the first, as the Hawkeyes' Holly Hoffman drove in a runner from second. Islanders starting pitcher Liz Carter would not be fazed, as the Austin native retired the next 14 Iowa (1-1) batters, with five coming by way of strikeout.  

Carter wrapped up her first outing of the season in impressive style, throwing seven innings, while giving up three hits, no earned runs and striking out seven.

"Liz is so competitive," head coach Stephanie Hughes said. "She may be a quiet kid, but she really dug deep today. That's what she lives for, and in that moment, she loves to be in the circle at that point. She buckled down and didn't give them anything. She painted the corners and kept them off balance all day."

Offensively, the Islanders Cosette Hernandez and Candice Hadd drew walks in the bottom of the first, but the Blue and Green could not level the score.

A&M-Corpus Christi appeared to have tied the game in the bottom of the second when Jessica Mendez singled to left and brought Dani Tefft in to score. However, the umpires ruled that Tefft left second base early, so Mendez went back to the plate, striking out on the next pitch.

Neither club was able to generate any offense through the third and fourth innings. In the bottom of the fifth, Megan Mitchell drew a walk to load the bases with Hadd on the on-deck circle.

In just her third career at-bat, Hadd came to the plate with two outs. The Hutto native drove a pitch to the left field gap, bringing in Cosette Hernandez and Tefft to take a 2-1 lead. With an opportunity to come up big for her team, Hadd was focused on doing her job.

"On that at-bat, I was looking to move some runners, maybe score some," Hadd said after the game. "I wasn't looking to do anything too big, just make solid contact. After I went down 0-2 and battled back to 2-2, I got a little nervous. I took a deep breath and made solid contact so it went well."

Iowa threatened the Islanders' lead in the bottom of the sixth by loading the bases with two outs. Carter was able to maneuver her way out of the jam, forcing Whitney Repole to pop-up to right for the final out of the inning.

"For us, what's held us back in the past has been our confidence," added Stephanie Hughes. "First game of the year, at home, against a Big Ten team, I don't if we would have held that lead last year. They were completely confident through the whole thing whether we were winning or losing." 

NOTABLE STATS

• Hernandez finished the day without registering an at-bat, drawing two walks and adding a sacrifice bunt.  
• Tefft registered one of two stolen bases for the Islanders. The senior from Sugar Land is now nine steals away from moving into third on the all-time list, after picking up her 33rd today.
• The one-run win on opening day is the closest victory for the Blue and Green since the 2005 season when the Islanders defeated Wichita State 1-0.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders Invitational continues tomorrow afternoon, as the Blue and Green face Louisville at Chapman Field starting at 12:30 p.m. The Cardinals opened their season with a 7-0 win over Sam Houston State before falling to Iowa in the afternoon 1-0.