CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - In a nine-inning nail-biter, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball (3-4) was edged out by Utah (3-4) 7-6 in the finale of the Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field Sunday evening.
"It was the first really nail-biter of the year and it didn't go our way," said head coach
Scott Malone. "There were multiple forks in the road and I thought we left some meat on the bone."
Utah took an early lead in the top of the first on a home run out to right field to begin the inning. In the ensuing half, the Islanders placed runners on first and second with singles before freshman
Christian Smith-Johnson scored to tie the game up at one to one. The Utes retaliated with a run in the top of the second.
After a couple of silent innings, the Islanders fought back with back-to-back doubles by junior
Sebastian Trinidad and senior
Brendan Ryan to give the Islanders a 3-2 lead as junior
Jose Enriquez and Trinidad came home to score. Utah went on to tie the game at three before junior
Tre Jones fought his way home in the bottom of the fifth to put the Islanders atop 4-3.
Scoring continued on for both sides in the sixth with each team getting two runs in the sixth inning. A&M-Corpus Christi got its first run when Ryan scored off a single by classmate
Max Puls. Junior
Diego Johnson made his way in to score as senior
Leo Markotic hit the Islanders' second consecutive single for a 6-5 lead. The Utes scored the final two runs in the top of the eighth.
Sophomore
Zach Garcia started for A&M-Corpus Christi and went on to pitch 4.1 innings, striking out three batters for an ERA of 6.23.
James Trimble, a freshman, came in for 3.1 innings of relief before junior
Austin Dean came in to finish out the game on the mound.
A&M-Corpus Christi collected 13 hits on the evening out of 41 at-bats. The team earned three extra-base hits, all coming as doubles with two of them leading to runs scored.
The Islanders and Utes return to the diamond Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. at Chapman Field for a rematch and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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