CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Heading into the final conference-series weekend, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball is hosting UIW at Chapman Field Thursday through Saturday to help determine seeding for the conference tournament. The matchup on Thursday evening is presented by HEB.
"It's an exciting weekend for our seniors. The last home series for them at Chapman Field will be very emotional," said head coach
Scott Malone. "I know everybody involved in the program wants to play well this weekend and make it a great finish for the regular season as we head into the tournament, hopefully with some momentum."
The Islanders (23-27, 11-10 SLC) hold claim to the fifth seed while the Cardinals (26-23, 12-9 SLC) sit at third in the conference. Both teams have the opportunity to improve seeding with A&M-Corpus Christi fighting for the second seed and UIW aiming for the top spot.
"UIW will be an outstanding opponent," continued Malone. "They've been maybe the most consistent team in the league, holding one of the top two spots in the standings from the opening weekend all the way. I know they're coming to town with the best closer in the league, so if we're going to beat them, we're going to have to be early as they're going to be hard late."
Sophomore
Chance Reisdorph heads into the series with a 10-game streak of reaching base. Eight of those have come from earning hits with the other two from walks seen with a keen eye. He's fought his way to earning at least two hits in every conference series thus far.
Within conference play,
Christian Smith-Johnson, a true freshman, has led the team in batting average at .353 with 51 at-bats thus far. He's collected 16 runs, tied for a team-high, and 18 hits with two of them coming as doubles.
As a collective unit, A&M-Corpus Christi leads the conference and remains nationally ranked in triples at sixth with 22 on the season. Senior
Brendan Ryan has paved the way with nine thus far to sit second in the nation, four behind the nation leader from USC.
Thursday and Friday's games are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. with Saturday's meeting kicking off at 2 p.m.. Each game will be streamed on ESPN+ and is accessible through a subscription.
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