EDINBURG, Texas - After jumping out to an early lead, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was forced to hold off a late UTRGV comeback, and secure a 5-4 win on Tuesday. The Islanders win is their first midweek contest of the season, and gives them eight wins in their last 10 meetings with the Vaqueros.
For the third time this season, the Blue and Green opened scoring in the first inning on their way to a win, with
Harrison DiNicola recording his fifth knock of the season on the very first pitch of the contest.
Luke Marbach and
Nick Anderson would follow up with singles behind Dinicola, with the former eventually scoring on a Thomas Jeffries' fielder's choice RBI.
Corpus Christi would chase the Vaquero starter from the game during the third, after drawing three consecutive walks. In his first start and first appearance of the season, catcher
Scott Balfantz would score Anderson and Jeffries in the inning to put the visitors up by three.
Coming in to pinch-hit for
Cam Boudreaux in the sixth, Andruid Martinez jumped on the very first pitch he saw, hammering a shot to left field for his first long ball since joining the Blue and Green.
Dalton Stark would pick up his team's fifth run on a single in the same inning, as the Ders looked to be rolling in the sixth frame.
After being held scoreless through five innings of play by starting righty
Tate Gillespie, the UTRGV offense finally broke through with a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to get within striking distance. Gillespie rolled through the first five frames of Tuesday's contest, facing just four over the minimum and holding the Vaqueros to five hits. The junior would finish out the sixth before calling it quits, recording a quality start in his first-ever start for the Islanders.
Gillespie would total six strikeouts on the night, to take a team-lead for the season thus far (7). The Austin-native was relieved by right-handers
Will Floyd and
Chris Cooper, with Cooper picking up his first save of the season. Cooper gave up a single earned run over 2.2 innings of work, as UTRGV continued to bite into the Islanders lead, but the reliever would finish off the ninth frame with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to secure the Corpus Christi win, and a move to 3-1 on the year.
- Nick Anderson had a huge day at the plate, reaching safely in four of his five plate appearances. The junior extended his hit streak to four straight with a single in the fifth, while drawing three walks
- With a pair of knocks each, Dinicola, Marbach and Stark continued their on-base streak to four straight games
- Seven players are currently getting on base at a clip of .400 or better, while nine are batting at or above the Mendoza line
- The Blue and Green are 3-0 this year when scoring in the first inning
- The Islanders played another perfect game from a fielding perspective, they've committed just a single error thus far this year. Their .993 fielding percentage on the year places them in the top-13 in the country
COMING UP NEXT
The Blue and Green continue on to the Kleberg Baseball College Classic to be held at Whataburger Field this Friday through Sunday, facing off with Nicholls, UC-Santa Barbara and No. 12 Mississippi State.
All TAMUCC Students with a valid Sand Dollar ID can purchase Kleberg Baseball College Classic tickets for five dollars apiece, while non-student tickets are available at 10 dollars for a single day pass and 24 for a full weekend.
STAY SOCIAL
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@IslandersBSB), Instagram (
@islandersbsb) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Baseball).
- Go Islanders -
