CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Opening the weekend with a momentum carrying victory, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team earned the 4-2 battle against UTSA Friday night at Chapman Field for the series advantage.
Back to even on the year, the Islanders (8-8) have extended their hot streak having now won five of their last six games. While they might not have filled up on runs in that effort tonight, they unloaded the arms of
Matthew Watson and
Evans Hendricks who strung together nine innings of masterful pitching on the night.
Watson opened on the mound and went 6.0 innings for the quality start and his first win on the year. Hendricks entered in the seventh and relieved the final three hitless frames for his second save of the year. They combined to strike out 13 batters which tied for most in a game this year.
"I thought the story of the game was our pitching," said head coach
Scott Malone. "I just didn't see a scenario where [UTSA] only got six hits, they're such a good offense and honestly, they had good swings all night and long at-bats. Evans had that 12-pitch at-bat that swung the momentum of the game. We didn't have any easy innings and I can't say enough about how Matt and Evans navigated those nine innings with 13 strikeouts. That was just a really good job against a talented team."
An unsung hero was senior
Cole Modgling who came off the bench for a sole at-bat, but it may have been the most impressive plate appearance of the night as his single over the infields' heads drove home what proved to be the two go-ahead runs in the sixth.
"Offensively, everybody had a good night, but another story is Cole coming off the bench. We've been calling him the "smart plug," and we decided to play some other guys tonight, but he had one spot to come in and pinch hit and what a huge game-winning RBI-single," said Malone.
UTSA seemed ready out of the gates after a lead-off single could've set a tone, but junior catcher
Chance Reisdorph shut it down with the straight liner to second to catch that runner stealing. Watson then elicited two groundouts to keep a cap on any early momentum from the Roadrunners' dugout.
The field continued to back up Watson, as a double play ended the third to evade UTSA once more. The script seemed similar for the UTSA defense until the fourth inning hit that saw enough damage in as little as four pitches.
Reisdorph slugged one fair down the left field line on the first pitch he saw to lead off the fourth with the double. On his first pitch, senior
Sebastian Trinidad advanced Reisdorph to third on the sacrifice bunt and then it was sophomore
Christian Smith-Johnson who also swung at the first pitch and got it deep enough for the sacrifice fly to score Reisdorph.
The Roadrunners would knot it up at 1-1 with a home run in the sixth but it was quickly answered in the bottom frame as back-to-back singles from Trinidad and Smith-Johnson helped plate junior
Josh Blount who drew the lead-off walk. Modgling then entered in a pinch-hitting role and on the 0-2 count with two down, he knocked it to center to send the two baserunners home for the 4-1 lead.
Hendricks then pulled a few tricks out of his sleeve in the seventh as he entered with two on, no outs. He ultimately walked the bases loaded before eliciting the ground ball as he got the force out at home to Reisdorph who turned the double play to first for two outs. One runner would squeak in, but he got the final out swinging to maintain the 4-2 lead without allowing a hit the whole way.
"I like the way we're winning, it's a team where everybody is getting to be a part of it. The one thing we did talk about is how Abilene Christian was in the same spot last week. They were up 1-0 in the series, leaving on a Friday night feeling good, and then couldn't finish, so we made an early challenge with these guys to get us to win a series on a Saturday so tomorrow will be a big game for us and hopefully we can keep this momentum going."
The Islanders will now have a chance to secure the series tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. back at Chapman Field.
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