CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team came up short in the opening game of the 2025 season on Friday evening, hanging tough but ultimately falling to Kansas by a final score of 8-5 in 10 innings.
The loss snapped what had been a four-game Opening Day winning streak for the Islanders (0-1), with their last loss in a season opener coming five years ago to the day on the road at UT Arlington. It was also their second defeat in as many tries in the all-time series against the Jayhawks (1-0), as the two also met in an early midweek matchup last season.
Eager to get the new season off on the right foot, A&M-Corpus Christi came out of the gates incredibly strong on Thursday, jumping on the scoreboard with a run in each of their first two innings at the plate. The first of these came just four batters into the game, when after senior
Isaac Webb led things off with a single and then stole second, junior
Jackson Smith laced a first-pitch fastball into right field to pick up his first hit and RBI as an Islander. This lead was then doubled in the next frame when sophomore
Jarrett Flaggert blasted the 3-2 offering from Kansas starter Dominic Voegele over the wall in left field for a solo home run, the first longball for the team on the season.
This advantage would not hold for long, however, as Kansas would manage to level up the score just one frame later against Islanders starter
Zach Garcia. After a clean first two innings of work, the senior lefty finally ran into some trouble in the third, surrendering a pair of walks and a single to load the bases with two outs. Garcia did come within one strike of escaping this jam but could not quite finish the job, allowing a base hit up the middle to Jayhawks designated hitter Dariel Osoria that tied up the game at two apiece. This would turn out to be the only damage against Garcia on the day, as he managed to make it through five complete innings while allowing just the two runs on three hits while punching out three hitters.
After Garcia's departure, junior
Easten Smith was the first man summoned out of the Islanders bullpen, and the newcomer was swiftly met with a rude welcome by the Jayhawks lineup. The right hander walked the leadoff batter and promptly moved him over 90 feet on an errant pickoff attempt, which set Kansas left fielder Brady Counsell up to break the tie with a base knock into left field. A&M-Corpus Christi did have a pair of opportunities after this to answer back in the next few innings, but it could not capitalize, having a runner thrown out at home on a bunt attempt in the bottom of the sixth and then stranding the tying run on third one frame later.
Now down to their last six outs, the Islanders finally broke through in the eighth, waking up their bats to knot things back up at three apiece. Smith and junior
Christian Smith-Johnson got this rally started with back-to-back one-out singles, and after a fielder's choice off the bat of senior
Trey Cruz advanced pinch runner
Will Stark to third, Cruz induced an errant throw down to second on a stolen base attempt that allowed Stark to come home easily and bring the score level once again.
This wave of momentum nearly carried the Islanders to victory in the final frame of regulation, as they managed to bring the winning run to second base with just one out in the ninth. This runner would be stranded right there, however, which sent the game into extras and kept the door open for Kansas once again. Blessed with new life, the Jayhawks would go on to kick this door all the way down in the top of the 10
th, scoring five runs on a pair of doubles and a sacrifice fly to take the biggest lead of the night for either team. A&M-Corpus Christi tried to mount a comeback effort after this, plating two themselves on a pair of wild pitches, but its hopes were dashed on a game-ending double play with the tying run at the plate.
Individually, the best performance of the day came from Smith, who went 3-4 with an RBI in his Islanders debut. Webb and Smith-Johnson also reached base two times apiece via a hit and a walk, and Flaggert had the biggest swing for either team on the day with his solo homer.
The Islanders will now try to bounce back and earn their first win of the season in the second game of the series against Kansas on Saturday at 5 p.m. They will send junior
Luke Singleton to the hill for the lefty's first start with the team, while the Jayhawks counter with sophomore right hander Manning West.
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