SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's baseball team travels to face UIW in the final conference series of the season at Daniel Sullivan Field Thursday through Saturday.
"I think both coaches will tell you both teams have as good of a chance to win the Southland tournament as anybody," said head coach
Scott Malone, not writing off last place UIW. "Last night they got after TCU and they have a ton of talent and will be looking for a get-right weekend. We won't take them lightly and will go in ready for a dogfight. Each of us is playing for seeding so you're looking at that."
The Islanders and Cardinals last faced each other in the first weekend of conference play where A&M-Corpus Christi came out on top in the series 2-1. The Islanders are currently on a five-game win streak in which they beat McNeese and UTRGV once before sweeping Nicholls at home. The Cardinals played TCU in 11 innings Tuesday night, falling off of a walk-off grand slam.
Steven Rivera-Chijin broke the single-season record for the most doubles in his senior campaign, hitting his 21
st double Sunday afternoon in a comeback win over Nicholls. the mark holds him at fifth in the nation, still leading the conference by a margin of seven. Rivera-Chijin has excelled within the extra-base realm, leading the team in all three categories combined.
Junior
Brendan Ryan is coming off a weekend in which he fell a single short of hitting a cycle against Nicholls on Saturday. Six hits and three runs were the final tallies in the series for Ryan as he also brought in three runs batted in for the team to assist in the series sweep. Despite missing four weeks of the season, he holds the 47th most stolen bases in the nation, going a perfect 21-21 and breaking the single-season record by two.
Rivera-Chijin's triple Friday night tied the Islanders for the most triples in Division I baseball before Ryan's feat the next day brought the team to be the sole nation leader in the category. The Islanders lead the conference in triples after breaking the tie against McNeese and holding the lead by one.
Under the perfect conditions, A&M-Corpus Christi could climb up to the fourth seed for the Southland Conference Tournament. The conference remains gridlocked at the top with two teams tied for first and six teams being able to claim the top seed in the final weekend of regular season play. Each series will start on Thursday and conclude by Saturday.
Both games on Thursday and Friday kick off at 6:30 p.m. as the final game of the regular season for both teams is at 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Stay Social
For more information on Islanders Baseball, follow the team on Twitter (
@IslandersBSB), Instagram (
@IslandersBSB) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Baseball).
