Photo courtesy Juan DeLeon
HOUSTON – An early offensive onslaught once again buried Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in an early hole and Saturday the Islanders could not duplicate their wild comeback, falling 8-2 to Houston Baptist at Husky Field.
Houston Baptist (24-25, 12-14) opened the game with back-to-back hits in the bottom of the first, leading to a pair of runs in the inning on just those two hits. An inning later, the Islanders (17-32, 6-20) committed three errors as a trio of unearned runs came home on just one hit.
For the second day in a row, the Blue and Green was buried in a 5-0 deficit in the early innings.
"We didn't come out and play very well from the get-go," said head coach Scott Malone. "Casey Thomas knows what comes with being the shortstop. He's the quarterback of the defense. We had a couple of plays early that we needed to make to hold that offense down and we didn't make them. To their credit, every time we opened the door they jumped right through it."
Junior Devin Skapura (3-8) started on the hill for the Islanders but could not duplicate his complete game mastery from a week ago, allowing seven runs, only four of which were earned on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.
The top of the fourth saw the Islanders pull a run back as Scott Balfantz picked up his seventh RBI of the season. The designated hitter Saturday, Balfantz lined a single into center field, scoring Zacarias Hardy from third. Zack Gibson was waved home from second, but was cut down on a bang-bang play at the plate on a great throw by Zane Otten.
HBU answered back and extended its largest lead of the afternoon in the top of the sixth as Andrew Alvarez doubled home a pair. Alvarez laced a shot off the left field wall and was cut down trying to stretch it into a triple.
The deficit would continue to grow as Brandon Brintz launched a solo home run off reliever Austin Cornish in the bottom of the seventh.
Lukas Hermanson doubled to lead off the top of the eighth inning for the Blue and Greee. The hit was Hermanson's second of the day and the catcher came around to score on a Casey Thomas sacrifice fly.
It would be too little, too late as the Islanders left a pair on in the inning and went down quietly in the ninth. Christian Thames (3-5) went the distance for HBU, tossing his second complete game allowing the two runs on six hits.
The 8-2 win for HBU evens the series and turns Sunday's finale into the rubber match. First pitch on Sunday afternoon is set for 2 p.m.
