CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team welcomed the University of Texas to Whataburger Field for a midweek showdown. Over 4,700 fans packed into the home of the Corpus Christi Hooks, as the Islanders and Longhorns battled for the second time this season.
Cullen Jozwiak's leadoff home run was not enough to hold off the Texas onslaught, as the visitors out-dueled the Blue and Green 12-2.
After Islanders (9-16) starting pitcher
Nolan Holland (0-2) struck out two of the first five batters in the top of the first, Jozwiak crushed the ninth pitch of his at-bat over the wall in left to put the Islanders out in front.
Later in the inning,
Dawson Yates broke for second when
Jackson Owens struck out. As Yates beat the throw for the double play,
Luke Marbach darted home to make it 2-0 Islanders.
From that point on, Texas (18-10) starting pitcher Nick Kennedy (4-0) silenced the bats for the Blue and Green. The lefty finished the night with 11 strikeouts, while allowing two earned runs on seven hits with two free passes.
Holland worked his way through to the fourth before making way for
Korey Rasure. The Islanders starter finished with seven earned runs against on a pair of hits with four walks.
Texas picked up nine of their runs in the second and fourth. Tate Shaw unleashed a grand slam to give the Longhorns the 4-2 lead in the second. Holland exited with the bases loaded in the fourth before Texas struck for five runs on four straight base hits.
Longhorns' catcher Michael Cantu extended the lead to 11-2 with a two-run homer in the sixth. Shaw notched his fifth RBI of the night with a groundout in the seventh to close out the game.
The Islanders will have a quick turnaround, as they face UH-Victoria on the road tomorrow night, before heading up to New Orleans for a Southland Conference series this weekend.
