CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball pounded out 14 hits and scored eight unanswered runs to complete the resounding 10-6 comeback victory over Southeastern Louisiana and ride to its fifth Southland series win and a tournament berth Saturday at Chapman Field.
With the win and losses from Central Arkansas and Lamar, A&M-Corpus Christi clinched a spot in the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament set for May 26-29 in Hammond, La.
The Southland series win marked the Islanders' fifth of the season, all coming since April 3 in a span that has seen A&M-Corpus Christi prevail in 18 of its last 23 league contests.
A&M-Corpus Christi's lineup of
Tristan Welch,
Justin Taylor,
Leo Markotic and
Cole Fluta paced the hit parade, as the quartet combined for 11 of the club's 14 hits on the day. Taylor finished a flawless 3-for-3 from the dish while Welch and Fluta posted stellar 3-for-4 days, with the group also scoring seven of the 10 total runs.
SLU staked a 4-1 lead through the top of the fourth, as the Lions tallied two consecutive two-run frames as a Cruz double kicked off an inning that saw one score on a hit by pitch and sacrifice bunt before a Delaney single up the middle added two to the scoreboard in the fourth.
The Islanders chipped into SLU's advantage in the third via Taylor and Fluta singles that set up a bases loaded situation after
Luke Marbach wore a pitch.
Itchy Burts helped get the home club on the board with a sacrifice fly to right field that brought Taylor across the plate.
Countering SLU's two-run frame in the top of the fourth, A&M-Corpus Christi batted back-to-back doubles courtesy of
Brendan Ryan and
Tristan Welch and added another sacrifice fly from Markotic to level their own two-run outing and claw back within one, 4-3.
After allowing four Lion runs,
Hayden Thomas (4-3) shut down the SLU bats with three scoreless frames that saw him strike out two as he finished with six and the mound victory.
The Islander bats broke this one wide open with a pair of three-run innings down the stretch, starting in the sixth as singles from Welch and Taylor put runners on before Markotic brought them home on a double before trotting to the plate himself on a wild pitch.
Another strong showing from the bottom half of the order in the seventh spurred a second-straight, three-run explosion as a Welch single, Taylor sacrifice fly and Markotic triple scored two more while Fluta helped Markotic cross home after being tagged out at third after trying to advance on a double.
Burts capped off the offensive onslaught with a right-field solo shot, marking his third round-tripper of the spring.
Islanders plan to honor its senior class in the home finale against the Lions Sunday at 1 p.m.
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