HAMMOND, La. - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team fell to Southeastern 18-11 after two weather delays proceeded to elongate the first game of the day at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
"It's a tough way to go out, but I think the score is indicative of the fight that these guys have," said head coach
Scott Malone. "We never got deflated in the first seven innings and we kept hitting them back. I'm proud of the fight these guys showed and thought until the very end, they were believing and pushing."
Heading into the second inning down by one, the team exploded for a huge three-run inning to gain an early 3-1 lead. With two outs sitting on the board, sophomore
Brandon Petkoff hit a single before junior
Leo Markotic made it onto first with a walk. As runners sat on first and second, fellow junior
Max Puls hit a single through the right side to bring home Petkoff. After a walk was allowed, senior
Steven Rivera-Chijin hit a double in his record-breaking season with the bases loaded to drive in two runs, giving A&M-Corpus Christi the lead.
An inning later, the magic kept on going as the team doubled, walked and singled in the next three at-bats to load the bases. Markotic came up to the plate to swing his bat, collecting another single and scoring
Tre Jones, a sophomore. Puls earned a sacrifice fly in the next chance he got to score Caraway and force a pitching change.
For the third consecutive inning, the Islanders put another run on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Rivera-Chijin came home off of a single by Jones. A&M-Corpus Christi knew they needed to fight and get something to go their way in the fifth inning with the score 10-6 in the Lions' favor. The first run scored as Markotic made his way home off a wild pitch which also advanced sophomore
Cole Modgling to third base.
Diego Johnson, another sophomore, hit a single up the middle to score Modgling and junior
Brendan Ryan to bring the game back within one run.
Caraway scored the lone run for the Islanders in the sixth inning for A&M-Corpus Christi off of a wild pitch with the bases loaded. The final run for the Islanders came when Ryan came home off of a walk with the bases loaded in the seventh.
Seven pitchers came to the mound for A&M-Corpus Christi in the duel of the bats with sophomore
Colin Purcell earning the start. He went on to pitch 1.1 innings and pitched one strikeout before senior
Daniel Nelson came in for relief, going 1.2 innings and two strikeouts himself.
Dom Lopez, another senior, came in for the fourth inning and was relieved after facing three batters with classmate
Tyler Miller coming to the diamond.
Sophomore
Sebastian Mejia pitched two innings of work and collected a strikeout before
Cassius Shy entered the game to start the eighth inning.
Henry Bird, another senior, came in relief of Shy and proceeded to close out the game in his final collegiate appearance.
"After 23 years at the Division I level and 15 as a head coach and it doesn't get any easier being the guy assigned to lead the last huddle," concluded Malone. "We'll keep working at it and get this thing figured out so we can win a championship."
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