CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team completed its first sweep of the season over Nicholls at Chapman Field after fighting back to earn five runs in the bottom of the ninth for the 11-10 victory.
"It's senior day and everyone's family was here making it special," said head coach
Scott Malone. "Sophomore
Sean Sieve hadn't pitched in two weeks before facing a guy hitting .350 with 50 RBIs, and he struck him out. [Senior]
Dom Lopez has now pitched in four straight games after not playing for nearly a month. Things like this make my job fun. It's more fun to win, but win or lose, it's great to see every kid involved."
The Islanders took first blood by scoring one run in the bottom of the first before scoring two more in the second inning to regain a 3-2 lead. The next three innings were silent for the bats until plating two more in the bottom of the sixth inning with one run coming in the seventh. The team entered the ninth inning down10-6 but knew they had the potential to make a comeback win.
Sophomore
Tre Jones took a leadoff walk as sophomore
Josh Caraway backed him up with a double to get runners on first and second.
Brandon Petkoff, an honored senior, grounded out in the next at-bat but still gave Jones the opportunity to come home and cut down the lead. Sophomore
Nate White singled to left field which brought in Caraway to bring the game within two runs.
Junior
Leo Markotic doubled to get White to third, forcing a pitching change for the Colonels before the next batter struck out to leave the Islanders behind two runs with two outs on the board. Senior
Steven Rivera-Chijin didn't back down as he singled out to center to tie the game as both base runners came home.
Brendan Ryan, a sophomore stepped up to the plate and hit a single to put runners on first and second before classmate
Diego Johnson belted another single to bring in Rivera-Chijin to win the game.
Rivera-Chijin made the Islanders' record book when he hit his 21st double of the season in the very first at-bat of the day for A&M-Corpus Christi. He had been sitting tied for the most with former players in Jose Rodriguez and Matt Holland before finally breaking the 11-year record. The performance continued to bode well in his favor as he earned three hits on five plate appearances while coming home twice to score with three runs batted in.
Markotic attempted to recreate the same day Rivera-Chijin was having by also going three-for-five with two runs scored and a double hit. He fell short in runs batted in, only bringing in one on the day. Sophomores Jones,
Josh Caraway and
Nate White all earned multiple hits as well with two apiece.
Sieve earned his first victory as an Islander in his sophomore campaign as he was tasked with facing one batter in which he struck out. Senior
Leo Perez made his final start at Chapman Field and pitched 4.2 innings with five strikeouts in the performance on 74 pitches and 20 batters faced. Fellow seniors Lopez and
Daniel Nelson came in for a combined 1.1 innings. Sophomore
Jaime Ramirez Jr. came in to face off against five batters before freshman
Clay Westbrook saw his third appearance in as many games this series. Senior
Cassius Shy and junior
Tyler Miller each pitched 1.1 and 1.0 innings respectively before Sieve closed out the game.
A&M-Corpus Christi will return to action in the regular-season finale at UIW this weekend as the two teams face off to help their respective schools win the Commissioner's Cup.
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