BEAUMONT, Texas - Led by freshman
Christian Smith-Johnson's four runs, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's baseball program (18-22) rallied to force an extra-inning 7-5 victory over Lamar (21-18) at Vincent-Beck Stadium Sunday afternoon.
"There was so much fight to the end by our kids that I could not be more proud of them," praised head coach
Scott Malone. "It was one of the better wins of the year and a great series win. Hopefully we can hold the momentum next week."
The Cardinals scored early in the first couple of innings to take a 3-0 lead out of the gate before the Islanders plated their first run in the top of the third. The run was scored by Smith-Johnson on an RBI single by junior
Diego Johnson.
During the fifth inning, Smith-Johnson scored once again to cut the Cardinals' lead in half to 4-2 on a single by senior
Max Puls. Lamar went on to plate another in the inning before the blue and green saw the aforementioned Smith-Johnson come across home plate for the third time on the day to make it a 5-3 game.
With the game on the line, A&M-Corpus Christi plated two runners in the top of the ninth as Smith-Johnson earned his fourth run of the day with Johnson scoring a couple of plays later to tie the game at five all to force extra innings.
In the top of the 11th inning, Ryan scored the go-ahead run on a fielder's choice with Puls earning the seventh and final run of the game on a wild pitch.
Zach Garcia, a sophomore, pitched seven innings in the game, striking out five batters in the performance and earning the victory on the day. Classmate
Kyle Dickey earned the final three outs to earn his first save of the season.
Evans Hendricks made the third start of his junior campaign, pitching 1.2 innings on the mound before classmate
Austin Dean entered in relief for 1.1 innings of work.
Johnson, Smith-Johnson, Puls and senior
Brendan Ryan paved the way offensively for the Islanders with three hits each in the performance. Junior
Sean Curtis was just shy with two hits in the performance. Junior
Tre Jones and
Chance Reisdorph, a sophomore, each earned a single hit in the outing.
The Islanders out-hit the Cardinals 16-15 in the duel with both teams leaving 11 runners on the bases. Ryan and Jones each had a double in the game. With the victory, the b lue and green now hold consecutive series victories over New Orleans and the Cardinals.
A&M-Corpus Christi will take a couple of days rest before traveling to take on UT Arlington on the road Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m.
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