HAMMOND, La. – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball opened Southland Conference tournament play with a bang as
Itchy Burts provided the ninth inning, walk-off finish in a 4-3 thriller over No. 5 Sam Houston Wednesday at Pat Kennelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
Headed into the bottom of the ninth tied 3-3 after Sam Houston's Blake Faecher smoked a three-run homer, the Islanders quickly put a runner aboard as
Leo Markotic completed his 3-for-4 day at the dish with a single up the middle.
Nate White pinch ran and used a
Cole Fluta sacrifice bunt and
Luke Marbach flyout to stand 90 feet away from home plate before Burts' single to left center cued the walk-off celebrations.
The Islanders held Sam Houston scoreless through eight frames thanks to starting hurler
John Gaddis' stellar mound performance that saw him collect a career-high 13 strikeouts through 7.0 innings.
A&M-Corpus Christi strung together three-consecutive singles courtesy of
Brendan Ryan,
Tristan Welch and Markotic to strike first and take the 1-0 lead in the second.
Homers helped the Islanders to a 3-0 advantage as Markotic launched his first career solo shot to left center in the fourth followed by
Josh Caraway's round tripper in the eighth inning.
Sam Houston threatened with two outs in the eighth and a pair of runners aboard as J. Rodgers nailed a line drive down the left-field line with the hopes to score, but once again Burts came in clutch with an acrobatic diving catch to retire the side.
The Islanders will face the winner of No. 1 Abilene Christian/No. 8 Lamar tomorrow (Thursday) at 4 p.m. in the Southland Conference tournament.
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