CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Battling rain all night, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northwestern baseball teams took turns slogging through the muck before the Wildcats were left standing with a 7-6 win in a game called because of poor field conditions.
NU actually scored a run in the top of the eighth to take an 8-6 lead, but after a conference at home plate between A&M-Corpus Christi coach
Scott Malone, Northwestern coach Ben Greenspan and the umpires, it was decided that the field had deteriorated to dangerous levels. The game was called before the Islanders could get their at-bat, erasing the results from the top of the eighth and reverting back to the last full inning.
"We had discussed before the game started that we wanted to err on the side of safety, and the umpires felt like the players were slipping and the field was becoming unsafe to play on," Malone said. "Neither side was going to gripe about it, winning by 10, losing by 10, winning by one, losing by one … hey, when you guys deemed this field to be unplayable, we're all gonna walk away no matter what the score is. That was the conversation. Everybody was on the same page. It was the right decision on a rough night."
It was also an entertaining night.
Playing the second game of a two-game set, the teams swapped the lead five times, combined for 17 hits in seven innings, hit six doubles, three triples and two mammoth home runs. But early on it was pitching that told the story, as A&M-Corpus Christi's
Jack Hill had his second consecutive solid start.
Hill, who picked up his first win last Wednesday with four innings of one-hit, no-run ball, gave up an unearned run in the first inning before retiring the next 12 batters. Yet it was batter No. 13 that proved to be Hill's downfall.
After starting the fifth inning with a three-pitch strikeout, Hill walked the next batter on four pitches. Following a fly out, Hill was one out away from qualifying for a possible win. But he gave up a single and then a three-run home run to Northwestern's No. 9 hitter, Griffin Arnone. That gave the Wildcats (9-9) a 4-3 lead and spelled the end of Hill's night.
"I think the toughness was there. I thought our guys were ready to play tonight," said Malone, who questioned his team's toughness after a 16-5 run-rule loss to NU the night before. "The field conditions were tough and yeah,
Jack Hill was good, but we're just playing average baseball right now, whether it's a defensive lapse or giving away an at-bat with the bases loaded. What we're doing is, we're making the margins very thin."
A couple players tried to widen those margins early, as Issac Webb jumped all over the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning. His resounding triple to the gap might have been enough, but when the throw in went awry, Webb scampered home with the tying run after just one pitch.
The in the bottom of the fourth inning,
Logan Vaughan led off with a double,
Christian Smith-Johnson was hit by a pitch, and
Cole Modgling walked to load the bases. That brought up
Stephen Hom, who came into the game hitting .209 with one RBI and three extra-base hits, all doubles.
No matter. Hom tattooed a double to left field that nearly cleared the fence for a grand slam. As it was, Hom had to settle for a two-run double and a 3-1 Islanders lead. And he wasn't done.
After the Wildcats took their 4-3 lead, Hom came up with two on and two out in the bottom of the fifth. Hom lifted a liner to right that Northwestern right fielder Jackson Freeman appeared to lose in the mist. Hom scampered all the way around to third with a two-run triple and a 5-4 lead.
Mason Persons, the Islanders' No. 9 hitter, then doubled to right field, driving in Hom and giving the Islanders a 6-4 lead.
Northwestern came right back, however, scoring two runs on two hits, a sacrifice fly after a misplayed foul ball and an error. The Wildcats then scored the decisive run in the top of the seventh when Arnone hit his second home run of the game, a no-doubter that cut through the mist and landed somewhere near the Turtle Cove parking lot beyond right field.
It was a disheartening end to a soggy night that saw the Islanders strand nine runners and strike out eight times, three times on the third out with runners on base.
"The margins are very thin," Malone said. "You know,
Jack Hill had a good night. But he walked one guy that guy came around to score on the three-run homer.
Austin Dean comes in late, gets out of a jam, but he goes out and walks one guy in the eighth and he comes around to score. Isaac Weber had a chance to catch up to a fly ball in foul territory and he missed it. The next pitch is a sac fly and they score again. The margins are very thin when you're playing these tight games and not doing the little things as well as we should be."
Hom finished the night going 3-for-4 with four RBIs, a single, a double and a triple, raising his average 46 points to .255. Vaughan was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, and Webb added a single to go along with his leadoff triple.
After winning seven-of-10 games heading into last weekend, the Islanders (10-15) now find themselves on a five-game losing streak as Southland Conference play awaits. The Islanders travel to San Antonio on Thursday to prepare for a three-game series with UIW beginning Friday.
"We have Southland Conference starting this weekend, and we talked about it in our postgame meeting and acknowledged that we're not playing good enough," Malone said. "We're doing the little things now that are putting us in a bad spot, and we have to turn it around. You don't want to put too much pressure on this player or that player or these pictures, but again, somebody's gonna have to go out there Friday and turn it around and get us in the win column. We'll travel to San Antonio tomorrow, have a good 90-minute practice and then leave there with a winning mindset and get ready to win a series on the road."
On Deck: The Islanders begin Southland Conference play Friday against UIW in San Antonio. A&M-Corpus Christi and UIW will play at 2 p.m. Friday, followed by games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The Islanders then will travel to Austin to play No. 23 Texas at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Next Home Game: The Islanders will return to Chapman Field on March 28 to begin a three-game series with Nicholls. Game 1 will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28, followed by games at 6 p.m. Friday, March 29 and 1 p.m. Saturday, March 30.
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