CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball is hosting the annual Kleberg Bank College Classic, serving as host to UIW, Houston and Utah this Friday through Sunday at Whataburger Field. The Islanders' games are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 3 p.m. on each day respectively.
"The experience is outstanding," said head coach
Scott Malone. "Everything leading up to it begins with practice today as all four teams get an hour on the field to move around on this Double-A park, which half of our team hasn't been on yet. Today is going to be exciting, leading us into the weekend."
A&M-Corpus Christi is following up the Kleberg Bank College Classic with a one-game series against the Utah Utes at Chapman Field Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. Both teams have beaten each other once with the Islanders taking the first matchup and the Utes the latter in 2021. Utah won its season opener against San Francisco 11-9 before falling in its next three matchups.
The Islanders and UIW opened and closed Southland Conference regular season play against each other in 2022, splitting both series 2-1 with A&M-Corpus Christi taking the first series, yielding the latter to the Cardinals. The game will not count toward conference play or standings and will be the first appearance the Cardinals make in the tournement.
Houston enters the weekend with a 1-3 record after taking down California once during opening weekend in an 8-6 victory. The Islanders and Cougars first matched up against each other in 2012 as the blue and green walked away with a 3-2 victory. Both teams played a three-game series in the Kleberg Bank College Classic in 2021 where A&M-Corpus Christi earned a 3-2 victory in the first game.
As a unit, the blue and green of the Islanders sit fourth in the nation in triples with four on the season. The triples have come from senior
Brendan Ryan with two, and
Tre Jones and
Leo Markotic each with one. Ryan's two triples place him second in the nation and first in the conference.
Sophomore
Marco Gutierrez has made three appearances thus far on the mound, the second-most in the nation, only behind Ty Burton of Radford with four. Thirteen different Islanders have made an appearance through four games played with more looking to make debuts this weekend.
Newcomer
Jake Johnson, a senior, owns a .455 batting average to lead the team with an OPS of 1.174. He's collected five hits on 11 at-bats with two of those hits and one of his three runs being scored against Texas.
Each game of the tournament will be streamed on FloBaseball while Monday's morning game against Utah will be available to watch on ESPN+ with live stats to follow for each game.
Friday, Feb. 24
Houston vs. Utah (2 p.m.)
UIW vs. A&M-Corpus Christi (6 p.m.)
Saturday, Feb. 25
Utah vs. UIW (2 p.m.)
Houston vs. A&M-Corpus Christi (7 p.m.)
Sunday, Feb. 26
UIW vs. Houston (11 a.m.)
Utah vs. A&M-Corpus Christi (3 p.m.)
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