CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team dropped its second consecutive game to open the 2025 season against Kansas on Saturday evening, getting blitzed on the mound and taken down by a final score of 12-1.
After their season opener on Friday played out very close for the majority of the game, the Islanders (0-2) were unable to hang with a red-hot Jayhawks (2-0) lineup on Saturday, surrendering four runs apiece in both the first and second innings to fall into what ended up being an insurmountable hole. The first outburst began right from first pitch, when Kansas got each of its first four hitters on base against junior
Luke Singleton via two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. A run-scoring fielder's choice got A&M-Corpus Christi its first out of the game, but with a pair of runners still on base, Jayhawks second baseman Chase Diggins ripped a double down the left field line to plate two more and increase the visitors' lead up to four.
The Islanders could not stem this tide in the next inning either, surrendering two more hits to lead off the second frame. A groundout to short and a single into center plated two more runs in the next two plate appearances, and right after this, Kansas got its biggest swing of the day on a two-run home run from first baseman Brady Ballinger. This was the knockout blow for Singleton's outing, and it made it an 8-0 ballgame after just four outs.
A&M-Corpus Christi's pitching staff did manage to settle down a bit after this, allowing just two runs over the next six innings, but the offensive explosion from the Jayhawks was compounded by a slow start from the Islander bats on the other side. The lineup was largely kept in check through the first portion of the game, notching just three hits over the first three innings while failing to drive in any of the runners that made their way on base. Their first breakthrough with the bats came in the fourth, when after senior
Cade Sanchez led off the frame with a double and senior
Austin Russell moved him over on a ground ball, senior
Josh Blount beat out an infield single to get the team on the board with its first tally of the day.
This would turn out to be it for the Islanders on offense, however, as the Kansas bullpen combined to toss four scoreless innings after the departure of starter Manning West. The home team did have another chance to get something going in the sixth inning, loading the bases on singles by Sanchez and Russell and a walk from Blount, but a fly out with two outs in the frame cut off the rally before it had a chance to get off the ground.
A&M-Corpus Christi had two hitters finish the evening with multi-hit games, with Sanchez picking up three of the team's seven knocks on the day out of the third spot in the lineup and senior
Isaac Webb tallying two hits in four at-bats as the leadoff batter. On the mound, its bullpen put in a pretty good shift, tossing 7.2 innings in total while allowing just three runs on six hits. This group was led by freshman
Bryson Shea, who struck out four batters over three innings of one-hit, no-run ball in what was a very impressive collegiate debut.
The Islanders will now try again to pick up their first win of the season on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the third game of their four-game set against Kansas. They are currently scheduled to hand the ball to junior lefty
Gage Burdick for his first start with the team, and he will go to work against righty Patrick Steitz.
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