CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team run-ruled UIW 12-2 in seven innings at Chapman Field in the conference opener for each team.
"It's as good as anyone can do it," said head coach
Scott Malone. "I thought [freshman]
Zach Garcia's ability to keep them off balance early and then [senior]
Tyler Miller was electric out of the bullpen. I thought when he came out the game really sped up and it took their hitters an inning or two to catch up."
Garcia took the mound for the Islanders and quickly worked his way through just under four innings, notching seven strikeouts in the start. This marked the first start Garcia has made in his collegiate career. Miller came in for relief for the young pitcher to finish out the last 3.2 innings necessary. Miller only allowed one hit in the performance, earning four strikeouts. Neither pitcher allowed an earned run to cross the plate the entire night.
Stealing bases was a must for A&M-Corpus Christi with seven bases being taken on the night. Senior
Steven Rivera-Chijin led the way, taking three bases on the night with sophomores
Brendan Ryan and
Tre Jones taking two apiece. Ryan's two stolen bases tentatively moves him up to a fourth-place tie in all of Division I baseball. Sitting eight bases behind the leader, he will look to close the gap a bit more through the weekend. He also saw his 12th ball hit him, tying him for second in the nation.
Coupled with a strong defensive performance, the Islanders saw five different players collect at least two hits on the night with seven players scoring a run. In the process of collecting two hits, Rivera-Chijin blew the team away, scoring the most runs at four. Ryan and Jones were the only other hitters to score multiple runs.
"I thought we played defense really well tonight," continued Malone. "An early double play shut them down and it was a [sophomore]
Diego Johnson welcome back double play."
Johnson returned to the lineup for the first time since suffering an injury against Stephen F. Austin on March 5.
The two teams match up again tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. at Chapman Field during the Strike Out Cancer weekend.
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