Islanders comeback bid falls short at UTSA, 10-7

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi baseball program (2-3, 0-0 Southland) nearly managed to overcome an early nine-run deficit at UTSA (2-2, 0-0 Sun Belt) on Tuesday evening, eventually falling by a 10-7 mark at the UTSA Baseball Stadium in San Antonio, Texas. After the Roadrunners built a 10-1 lead following four frames of action, the Islanders kicked their offense in high gear, posting one run in the fifth and three in the sixth before UTSA relief pitching contained the Blue & Green to two across the final three innings. 

KEY INNINGS
Top | 1st
- Junior Itchy Burts reached on a leadoff walk to open the game and proceeded to advance to second on a steal.
- The two-hole hitter, senior Enrique Sanchez Jr., pushed Burts to third with a single down the right-field line.
- In yet another successful at-bat, senior Thomas Jeffries IV plated Burts on deep sacrifice fly to right field, pushing the Islanders to an early 1-0 advantage.

Bottom | 1st
- The Roadrunners composed a strong response despite fighting a two-out situation in the first, notching four runs off a trio of singles and an RBI walk.

Bottom | 2nd
- Despite an Islanders pitching change to open the frame, the UTSA offense continued to roll in the bottom of the second, posting another four runs to push the lead out the seven. A triple midway through pushed two across while a fielder's choice and an RBI groundout accounted for the other pair of runs.

Bottom | 4th
- The Roadrunners added their final two runs of the night with an RBI walk and a sacrifice fly, grabbing a commanding 10-1 advantage.

Top | 6th
- After picking up one run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly, the Islanders offense revved to life in the sixth frame with a game-high three runs. Junior Luke Marbach opened the inning with a single and a steal, allowing fellow junior Drake Osborn to tack a run on the board behind a shallow double down the left field line.
- Junior Tyler Mendoza managed to reach on a fielding error, giving Osborn opportunity to round third and score the second run of the frame.
- A few at-bats later, Burts converted a near-disaster into fortune for the Islanders, initially floating an attempted bunt towards second base but securing an RBI when the fielder mishandled the catch, resulting in no outs and one run for the Blue & Green.

Top | 7th
- Following Nick Anderson reaching base on a hit-by-pitch, the senior found his way home on an Osborn RBI groundout, pulling the gap within four runs for the Islanders.

Top | 9th
- A Jeffries walk originally set up the senior on-base, but an Anderson single followed by a Marbach fielder's choice notched Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's final run of the night.

ON THE MOUND
- Fifth-year senior Chad Romere (1-1) received his first start of the season, working through the first inning with four runs allowed on four hits with a pair of strikeouts.
- Fellow fifth-year senior Chris Glover got his first action of the year the ensuing frame, surrendering another four runs on three hits with one strikeout.
- True freshman Mason Hopkins earned his collegiate debut and posted three strikeouts across two innings of work while relievers A.G. Ayala and Dustin Lacaze closed out the final four frames with a combined four strikeouts and just one hit allowed.

COMING UP NEXT
After five games across five days to open the season, the Islanders receive one day of rest before returning to action in the opening round of the Kleberg Bank College Classic, hosting BYU at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening at Whataburger Field.

STAY SOCIAL
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