CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball (2-3) fell to UIW (2-3) in the weekend opener of the Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field 10-4 Friday evening.
"We're going to play better tomorrow as there's too much talent on our side," said head coach
Scott Malone. "I thought we had a nice crowd as Islanders fans come out to the big stage."
The Cardinals took an early lead in the top of the first inning with two runs. They followed up the first with a run in the second to extend their lead to 3-0.
A&M-Corpus Christi scored its first run of the night in the bottom of the second inning as junior
Sebastian Trinidad hit a sacrifice fly out to center field to bring senior
Max Puls home with the bases loaded.
Brendan Ryan, a senior, singled out to second base to earn a run batted in as
Josh Caraway, a junior, made it home safely. UIW went on to score five runs in the top of the fourth to make it an 8-2 ballgame.
The Islanders held the next three innings scoreless before making another attack of their own with a run in the bottom of the seventh with Ryan scoring the third run of the game for the blue and green. UIW scored two more in the top of the ninth inning to extend its 10-3 lead. Ryan scored the final run of the night in the bottom of the ninth for a final score of 10-4.
Ryan finished the night batting .750 on four at-bats with two runs and a run batted in. Junior
Diego Johnson fought his way to two hits on five at-bats with three other Islanders earning at least one hit.
Senior
Hayden Thomas threw 3.1 innings after taking the start on the mound, going on to earn four strikeouts.
Marco Gutierrez came in for his fourth relief appearance of his sophomore campaign. He remained in the middle of the diamond for 2.2 innings. He earned two strikeouts and only allowed one hit.
With six innings in the books, the Islanders saw a pitching change as junior
Dalton LeBlanc came out to the diamond.LeBlanc pitched one inning before junior
Sean Sieve followed suite in the next inning. Juniors
Cole Beddingfield and
James Burchett closed out the night for A&M-Corpus Christi.
A&M-Corpus Christi returns to Whataburger Field Saturday night at 7 p.m. to take on Houston on day two of the Kleberg Bank College Classic.
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