Islanders Pursue Conference Play as McNeese Comes to Town

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team will continue conference play for the sixth week in a row, taking on McNeese State at Chapman Field this weekend.

"We're looking to change things up and create a spark by putting the leader of the pitching staff on the front on Friday," said head coach Scott Malone about senior pitcher Hayden Thomas. "We're hoping to get this series started off with a win. McNeese is a good team and has stolen around 90 of 110 bases so we need our pitchers to slow the game down."

The Islanders are coming off of a huge 12-5 victory in the south Texas Showdown against UTRGV. In the past week, the team has gone 3-2, defeating Prairie View A&M, New Orleans and the Vaqueros, only falling to New Orleans in two of the competitions.

On a national stage, A&M-Corpus Christi continues to shine, particularly in triples where they sit third with 20, sitting behind only Arizona and Delaware by one triple. Within the extra-base category, the team sits 31st overall in doubles, earning 86 thus far. The team leads the conference in total extra-base hits, leading in doubles and tied for the most triples (20) and home runs (40).

Individuals on the team have had breakout seasons as well where sophomore Josh Caraway has had a fourth of the team's triples at five to lead the conference and be seventh in Division I baseball. Senior Steven Rivera-Chijin is 17th in the nation in doubles, also leading the conference, having collected 17 on the season.

"You have to be able to hit well in this league to have a great team," continued Malone. "It's all eyes on sophomore Brendan Ryan as he looks to return this weekend. I think he's a top five player in the league and he adds to our lineup as it gets harder to navigate."

Ryan has not played since the second game against Northwestern State as he's dealt with a nagging injury, however, he's still 46th in the nation with 18 stolen bases, not having been caught once. His batting average has been exceptional as well, leading the Southland Conference at .376 before having to sit out for a while.

Friday's game will start at 6:30 p.m. as the series continues on on Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., respectively.

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