HAMMOND, La. - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's baseball team narrowly fell short against New Orleans in a 10-9 slugfest in game eight of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at PAt Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
"I think before sophomore
Josh Caraway came to the plate, you wanted one more base runner," said head coach
Scott Malone. "They had to get through some tough batters at the end and were able to. When you look at the box score, it's kind of a baseline game for us and we were hoping it would come out in our favor."
Feeling some pressure in the bottom of the fourth after falling behind 2-0, the Islanders turned the momentum in their favor with a three-run inning to take a one-run lead. Junior
Leo Markotic took to the plate with runners on first and second, proceeding to hit a ball to left to score Caraway.
Nate White, another sophomore, repeated the hit to left which permitted Markotic to score himself along with
Brandon Petkoff in his sophomore campaign.
Favor continued looking upon A&M-Corpus Christi in the fifth inning as the team quickly placed runners on second and third off a single by sophomore
Tre Jones and a double hit by Caraway. Petkoff stepped up for the next at-bat and shot a ball out to center field, allowing both runners to come home to give the Islanders a narrow 5-4 lead.
Max Puls, a junior, kep the dial going for the Islanders, scoring in the third consecutive inning for them off of a double by senior
Steven Rivera-Chijin in the bottom of the sixth.
Junior
Hayden Thomas started the game for A&M-Corpus Christi, proceeding to collect five strikeouts through five innings pitched. He faced 25 batters at the plate and gave up four earned runs before sophomore transfer
Sean Sieve came in for relief, facing one batter before exiting. Fellow sophomore
Jaime Ramirez Jr. entered the game and went 1.2 innings before J.T. Moeller, a teammate of the same class, came in to work. Moeller stayed in the game for 2.1 innings, only allowing one hit with no runs scored.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing by three, the Islanders refused to give up. Jones reached first on an error by the second baseman to add pressure on the Privateers. Caraway once again gave his best effort, hitting a home run out to left center to bring the game within one run.
Markotic was one of three Islanders to collect multiple hits and runs batted in on the night, going three-for-five behind the plate and driving in two. Petkoff and Caraway both collected two hits and RBIs each. Caraway and Jones each scored three times apiece to give the team the best they had.
A&M-Corpus Christi returns to the field tomorrow in an elimination match versus Southeastern at 1:00 p.m. at Pat Kenelly Field. The winner of the game will advance to face New Orleans in the 6:00 p.m. game.
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