SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team put up the good fight Tuesday at Roadrunner Field, but three unearned runs proved to be too much to overcome in a 4-2 loss to UTSA.
The Islanders (17-24) and the Roadrunners (22-15) split their season series 2-2 after TAMU-CC took 2-of-3 from UTSA in early March. It was the first and only time the Roadrunners have dropped a weekend series this season.
The Islanders nearly took the series finale between the two teams with a late rally, but one bad inning proved to the difference.
"It was a good Tuesday night fight," TAMU-CC coach
Scott Malone said. "It was a good game from the jump. You know, we had one bad inning. They put some hits together. We had a big error that would've got us off the field, and it's gonna happen. That's baseball. We just have to be able to navigate it, try to hold that to one run instead of letting it turn into three."
In a designated bullpen game – meaning pitchers were on predetermined pitch and-or inning counts –
Jack Hill pitched two perfect innings to start the game and was pulled to start the third.
Joshua Flaugher came on in relief, and despite giving up two singles and a walk, was one pitch away from escaping the inning unscathed. But an error allowed the Roadrunners to score the first run, then another single and a steal of home brought in two more to give UTSA a 3-0 lead.
Samuel Feltz relieved Flaugher and put out the flames in the third, then added two more innings of one-hit relief with no runs and two strikeouts.
The Islanders began finding their offense in the fifth inning, as
Cole Modgling – who went 3-for-4 – and
Christian Smith-Johnson smacked back-to-back two-out singles. A groundout ended the threat, but TAMU-CC finally had some momentum.
In the sixth inning, the Islanders again got back-to-back two-out singles, this time courtesy of
Sebastian Trinidad and
Garrett Gruell.
Logan Vaughan then unloaded on a deep drive to left-center, but the ball was caught just shy of the wall to end the threat.
UTSA added another run in the sixth as the Roadrunners led off the inning with three singles and a walk off TAMU-CC reliever
Kendall Dove. Dove was able to limit the damage, however, holding the Roadrunners to just one run and a 4-0 lead.
TAMU-CC finally got on the board in the eighth.
Issac Webb and
Drake Kerr each singled to lead off the eighth, and after a pair of stolen bases, Trinidad knocked in the first TAMU-CC run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right. Kerr eventually stole third, but he could have stayed where he was as Gruell – who missed Sunday's game against HCU with an injury – ripped a double into the corner in left to make it a 4-2 game.
Gruell, who went 2-for-4, had the only extra-base hit for the Islanders. His double was his 10th of the season, tying Trinidad for the team lead.
Ironically, though three unearned runs proved to be the difference, the Islanders played exceptional defense.
Bryce Logan came in as a defensive replacement at shortstop in the seventh and made two outstanding plays, including a short-hop double play, the team's Southland Conference-best 31st of the season. Smith-Johnson made a diving catch in right field in the seventh, and in the bottom of the eighth, a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play – the 32nd of the year – ended a UTSA threat and kept the lead at 4-2.
The Islanders got a spark in the ninth when
Josh Blount beat out a bobbled ground ball to first for an error with two outs, but a deep fly to center ended the threat and the game.
Five TAMU-CC pitchers combined to allow four runs (only one earned) on 10 hits, two walks and two hit-batters. The Islanders had nine hits, but four UTSA pitchers combined to strike out 12.
"I thought UTSA threw some really talented arms, some really high-end arms, and again, it's a big challenge for our guys," Malone said. "It's not easy, but we gotta be able to get some more innings going, put some hits together, do the little things."
Doing the little things will take on greater importance this weekend, as nationally-ranked Lamar comes to town for a three-game set.
"That's exactly what we're gonna see from Lamar, several talented arms," Malone said. "It's gonna be a tough weekend. We're gonna have to play better than we've been playing."
On Deck: The Islanders will return home Friday to begin a three-game conference series with Lamar. The teams will play at 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
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