SAN ANTONIO, Texas – It seemed almost too perfect, too surreal, too much like a fairy tale. But as the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball team heads to San Antonio for a three-game series with UIW on Friday and Saturday, the season is very much starting to develop a magical feel.
Perhaps nothing highlights the ethereal quality the Islanders have created more than Game 2 last Friday against Texas A&M-Commerce, bottom of the first inning, two on, two outs,
Paolina Baez at the plate.
The light-hitting second baseman walked to the plate with all of eight extra-base hits in her career prior to this season, none of which was a home run. Yet coming off Game 1 against the Lions, in which the Islanders scored just one run while she went 0-for-3 to see her average drop to .245, some of that 2024 magic reappeared.
With her dad and her uncle sitting on the berm in center field, Baez unloaded on a missile to the deepest part of the park, an area in which few people have ever reached. What's more, the ball rolled serendipitously to the feet of her father, who cradled the ball with a joy and love only a father knows.
"What's crazy is my dad was actually not supposed to be here that weekend," Baez said. "But my truck, funny enough, was not working, so he needed to drive down to help. Weird thing is, when he got here it started just fine. I guess it was a God thing that he needed to be here. He was just so excited that he got to be there when it happened."
But Baez wasn't finished.
The junior from Fort Worth added a stolen base and an RBI single, giving her a career-high four RBIs in one game. She had never had more than one in any one game in her career. The next day in the series finale, she just kept hitting, adding a double, a single, another RBI and another stolen base.
"Paoli puts an extreme amount of pressure on herself (most players that truly care do)," A&M-Corpus Christi coach
Kathleen Rodriguez said. "I'm reminding them all everyday that time is fleeting and that enjoying the process, teammates, trips and fellowship is a gift. We have been working on her attack both defensively as well as on offense, and it served her well last weekend."
Indeed.
Baez has now nearly doubled her number of career extra-base hits in just 21 games this season, she's nearly surpassed her single-season RBI total with 12 (her previous best was 15 as a freshman), and in her two-game outburst against Commerce, she raised her batting average 41 points to .286.
"What I kept telling myself at the plate was, 'The first two strikes are mine; take hacks,' and that's what I did," Baez said. "But my defense is just important to me as my offense. Being able to work for my pitcher and getting her as many outs as I can puts our team in a good position for offense. We are excited to head down to San Antonio this weekend and are focused always on the next team in front of us."
Baez's resurgence was far from the lone storyline in the Islanders' conference-opening sweep of the Lions. The Islanders (15-6 overall, 3-0 SLC) were dominant in all three phases, getting great pitching, explosive hitting and dazzling defense en route to their best start in 13 years. The 2011 Islanders went 18-6 and finished with the second most wins in school history at 41-19.
"We are proud of our start," Rodriguez said. "We discussed what we need to continue doing and what we need to improve on during practice this week. Now we must execute."
The Islanders executed just fine last weekend. A&M-Corpus Christi got its usual brilliance from
Primrose Aholelei, who tossed two shutouts (1-0 and 8-0 in five innings), allowed just four total hits and struck out 14 in 12 innings. She now has 108 strikeouts on the year, placing her second in the country behind Stanford's Nijaree Canady, and her three shutouts on the year are good for 12
th nationally.
Along with her shutouts and strikeouts, the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher and Newcomer of the Year is 9-4 with nine complete games, allowing her to steadily make her way up the school's record book. She currently sits second in career ERA (1.81), third in strikeouts (294), fourth in wins (28), fourth in complete games (35) and 10
th in games started (42). She's also just two innings outside of the top 10 in innings pitched, which she no doubt will surpass in Game 1 Friday.
Aholelei is in the top five in every significant pitching category among SLC teams, including holding the top spot in wins, innings and strikeouts. In fact, she has almost twice as many strikeouts as her next closest competitor (108-57 for UIW's Larissa Jacquez), and just Aholelei's swinging strikeouts (75) alone are more than any other conference pitcher.
While Aholelei needed to be at her stellar best in the 1-0 Game 1 win over Commerce, the offense came alive in Games 2 and 3.
Leading the way was SLC Hitter of the Week
Taniece Tyson, who had her way with the Lions. The senior from Lancaster, Texas hit a tidy .700, slugged 1.200, blistered a pair of doubles and added her sixth home run of the year. She came into the Commerce series hitting a respectable .340 and left it hitting a scorching .404.
Tyson leads the conference in slugging percentage (.808, which places her in the top 50 in the country) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.242), she's second in home runs (6), fourth in batting average (.404) and seventh in RBIs (15).
She was joined by a host of teammates who had big weekends, most notably Baez, who hit .400 in the final two games alone with that magical home run, a double, two stolen bases and a team-leading five RBIs. She also handled five chances at second base effortlessly, helping the Islanders play error-free ball in consecutive games for the third time this season.
Prior to the final two games against the Lions, the Islanders had 19 errors in the previous 10 games, hopefully signaling an end to their non-conference defensive woes.
The Islanders hit .342 as a team against Commerce, with
Alina Jasso collecting five hits and
Monee Montilla,
Sidney Campion and
Crystal Davila each adding a pair of hits. Montilla added four walks and
Rhea-Ann Avalos drew five walks, helping the Islanders amass a .430 on-base percentage.
"It was nice to see everyone pitching in," Rodriguez said. "They are beginning to understand that with everyone having a hand in contributing to a win, we look pretty good."
The Islanders will need all hands this weekend in San Antonio. The Cardinals, led by sophomore first baseman Victoria Altamirano and her .426 average, .485 OBP, 1.141 OPS and 15 RBIs, are among the conference leaders in most offensive and defensive categories.
Jacquez and Aholelei likely will hook up twice in a marquee pitching matchup between two of the nation's best. Jacquez leads the conference and is 28
th in the nation with a miniscule 0.92 ERA. The freshman from Eagle Pass is 3-3 with four complete games, two shutouts, 57 strikeouts and a .183 batting average against.
"UIW is a very well-coached team filled with strong athletes," Rodriguez said. "Our approach is to always respect our opponents, play Islander softball to the very best of our ability, be energetic, disciplined, trust and love one another. If we can do that throughout the season, I believe good things will happen.
Scouting UIW: The series was switched from a single game Friday and doubleheader Saturday because of potential wet weather in San Antonio. The teams now will play at 4:30 and 6 p.m. Friday and then 1 p.m. Saturday. … A&M-Corpus Christi leads the all-time series between the teams 14-10. The Islanders have taken two of three from the Cardinals each of the past two years. … UIW is 13-6 and coming off a 6-5 loss to Jackson State on Tuesday. Jackson State also beat A&M-Corpus Christi 9-8 on Feb. 10 in a game the Islanders led 7-0 in the seventh inning. … UIW and TAMUCC both were at the 5
th Boerner Invitational in Arlington on March 1-3, though the teams didn't play each other. UIW went 3-2 with wins over UT-Arlington (9-0) and Grambling (10-1 and 9-2). The Cardinals lost to UTSA (6-3) and UT-Arlington (1-0). The Islanders went 2-3, beating Grambling (6-2) and UTSA (4-2) and losing to UTSA (3-1) and UT-Arlington (13-5 and 10-0, both in five innings). … UIW started SLC play last weekend against Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., and lost the first two games 4-3 and 2-0 before winning the finale 6-3. SLU was picked to finish second in the conference in the SLC preseason poll. UIW is second in the SLC in batting average at .296, just ahead of A&M-Corpus Christi (.292). UIW is third in team ERA (2.33), just behind A&M-Corpus Christi at 2.24. … UIW is easily the hardest team to strikeout. The Cardinals have just 55 strikeouts, which is 43 fewer than the next closest team. A&M-Corpus Christi has 104. … UIW also has the fewest number of errors in the conference with eight. The next closest is Lamar with 19. A&M-Corpus Christi has 26. … UIW's .984 fielding percentage is fourth-best in the country. … Opposing teams are hitting .240 against the Cardinals compared to .222 against the Islanders.
TAMUCC (15-6, 3-0 SLC)
Friday, March 15 – vs. UIW (13-6), 4 p.m., HEB Field, San Antonio
Friday, March 15 – vs. UIW (13-6), 6:30 p.m., HEB Field, San Antonio
Saturday, March 16 – vs. UIW (13-6), 1 p.m., HEB Field, San Antonio
Up Next: Following the series with UIW, the Islanders will travel to Prairie View for a midweek doubleheader against Prairie View A&M. Game 1 will start at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, with Game 2 starting approximately 30 minutes after Game 1.
Next Home Game: The Islanders begin a three-game SLC series against Northwestern State on Friday, March 22 at Chapman Field. The teams will play a doubleheader beginning at noon Friday followed by a single game beginning at noon Saturday, March 23.
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@IslandersSball) and Instagram (
islanderssball).
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