CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - For the second time in as many days, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi mounted a comeback win this against Incarnate Word this Saturday, beating the Cardinals 4-3 and securing a series win at Chapman Field,.
After facing five batters in relief to open the series on Friday, most spectators expected a short leash for starting freshman
A.G. Ayala this Saturday afternoon, yet the first-year Islander rose to the occasion in his team's second game against the Cards, with an outstanding 7.0-inning outing. After spotting the visitors a pair of runs in the second, Ayala remained dominant through the remainder of his performance, finishing his day with just four hits against. In his first start as a member of the Blue and Green, the lefty struck out a career-high seven batters on the way to his fourth win of the season, tossing 99 pitches in the process.
Trailing by a pair, headed into the bottom half of the third, the Islanders once again made a heroic comeback victory after scoring four unanswered runs. Extending his hitting streak to 17 straight games, on the first triple of his career,
Itchy Burts crossed home for his team's first run of the contest on a
Jackson Owens single.
Following a scoreless fourth,
RJ Ruiz gave the Islanders base runners in the fifth with his side's lone walk of the contest, advancing on an
Enrique Sanchez Jr. single and eventually finding the tying run on Burts' groundout RBI. With Owens back at the plate, the Islanders' starting second baseman reached first on a scrubbed fielding attempt by the UIW shortstop, with Sanchez providing the Corpus Christi go ahead on the same play.
The Blue and Green would extend their lead to 4-2 in the seventh on yet another two-out rally. Back to back singles from Sanchez and Burts gave the home team a runner in scoring position, before the former of the pair came home on a UIW fielding error.
With the Cardinals pulling back a run in the eighth, reliever Cody Lecompte supplied the second save of his career on Saturday, recording the final six outs of the Islanders' second game with Incarnate Word. The southpaw gave up a single hit while facing one over the minimum in his two-inning save, with a perfect ninth frame sealing a 4-3 victory for the Blue and Green.
- The Islanders' top-three in the order accounted for six of Corpus Christi's seven knocks on the day, along with both of their team's RBI
- Sanchez has had opposing hitters shaking over his last five starts, recording his fourth three-hit performance of the past 10 days. The Blue and Green's third baseman is currently on a nine-game hitting streak, 15-game on base streak and is averaging .565 in the month of May
- The Islander pitching staff has struck out 22 Cardinal batters over two games this weekend. UIW came into the weekend averaging under six strikeouts per nine innings on the year, and had a combined 24 over their past four outings coming into Friday
- After recording his second walk-off knock of the past week in Game One, Owens extended his hitting streak to seven games with his single against the Cardinals, while driving in his sixth run of the past six contests
- Barring the result of this afternoon's contest with New Orleans and Nicholls, the Blue and Green currently sit 1.5 games outside of a postseason spot and just two games back of UIW, who currently sits at seventh in the conference
COMING UP NEXT
The Islanders make an attempt at their first SLC sweep of 2018 with a 1 PM first pitch scheduled against the Cardinals this Sunday. With its Game Two victory Corpus Christi has won its past three three-game series against UIW and is a stout 9-1 when playing against the Cards at the Chap all-time. This week's finale will bid farewell to eight Islander seniors, as
Scott Balfantz,
Cam Boudreaux,
Chris Cooper,
Cole Carter,
Jackson Owens,
Chad Romere,
RJ Ruiz and
Dalton Stark participate in the final home game of their college careers.
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- Go Islanders -
