NEW ORLEANS – Eight runs for New Orleans between the third and sixth innings on Saturday proved too much to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team to climb back from, as the Islanders dropped its series opener with the Privateers 10-3.
Dalton Stark and
Luke Marbach powered the Islanders (9-18, 2-5) with two hits apiece, while John Cable went 3-for-4 with four RBI for the Privateers (15-12, 5-5).
Itchy Burts put the Islanders on top in the second. The freshman hit a liner to left that came down for a hit, before the UNO left fielder committed an error that let
Brett Burner come in from second.
Owen Magee tied the game in the bottom of the second with a solo home run to left. The Privateers took the lead in the third on a grand slam from Cable. All four runs against Islanders starting pitcher
Devin Skapura were unearned due to an error earlier in the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, UNO added to its lead with four runs on three hits and a pair of walks.
Chris Glover came on in relief of Skapura with one out and the bases loaded, before striking out the final batter of the inning.
Corpus Christi benefitted from a pair of errors in the seventh.
Dawson Yates' hit to center was too hot for the center fielder, as
Cam Boudreaux scored from second. Two batters later, Stark singled up the middle with Yates on second, only for the center fielder commit his second error of the inning to let Yates score.
The Privateers tacked on a run in the bottom of the seventh, before retiring six of the next seven batters for the Blue and Green to end the game.
Skapura (1-4) worked his way through five innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts. Shawn Semple (4-1) picked up the win for the Privateers after tossing 6 2/3 innings, scattering six hits with three unearned runs, while punching out seven.
Corpus Christi and New Orleans moved up the series finale to tomorrow afternoon. The two clubs will play a doubleheader, starting at 2 p.m., before a 5 p.m. first pitch in game two.
