CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team was downed in its second game of the 2025 Kleberg Bank College Classic on Saturday evening, hanging in early but fading late against Michigan State and falling by a final score of 8-3.
After picking up its first-ever win over UCLA in the first game of the weekend on Friday, the Islanders (1-5) could not do the same against another Big Ten opponent in the Spartans (6-0). The loss was their second to Michigan State in as many tries in the all-time series, with the only other game coming back in 2016 when they were taken down 9-3.
A&M-Corpus Christi found itself trailing for nearly the entirety of the ballgame on Saturday, which came to be thanks to a pair of early runs hung on the board by MSU. The first of these came in the opening frame against starter
Luke Singleton, when after he loaded the bases with one out, the Spartans got on the board on a run-scoring fielder's choice. This lead would get doubled two innings later, increasing to two on an RBI single off the bat of left fielder Jake Dresselhouse.
The first response from the Islanders came in the bottom of the fourth inning, and it came in the form of the best plate appearance of the young season for the team. After fouling the first seven pitches of his at-bat and taking the next three to work the count full, senior
Logan Vaughan took the 11
th pitch and smoked it over the bullpen in right field for his first hit and home run of the season, a solo shot that brought the Islanders' deficit back down to one.
This spark of momentum did not last long, though, as the Spartans answered back with a five-run fifth inning to widen the gap to its largest margin of the game. This outburst started quickly, with first baseman Nick Williams lacing a triple into the gap in left center field to plate a pair and chase Singleton from the game. Sophomore
Braden LaRusso was quickly met with an RBI single upon his entrance into the game as the first reliever out of the bullpen, and to cap it off, an error helped another run come across and prolonged the inning enough for a sacrifice bunt to bring in the fifth of the frame in the next at-bat.
Now facing a six-run disadvantage, the Islanders did show some fight, responding with a pair of runs themselves in the bottom half of the fifth that came on a bloop single with the bases loaded by junior
Jackson Smith and a sacrifice fly one batter later by senior
Cade Sanchez. This would be it for the scoring, however, as the bats ended up going cold against two Michigan State relievers through the later portion of the game. They recorded just three hits the rest of the way while failing to move a runner into scoring position, which helped the Spartans take the game to the finish line.
Despite the loss, the Islanders did have one of their better offensive games so far this year in terms of hits, with seven of the 13 players that came to bat recording a knock. Vaughan had the best day of anyone, reaching base twice via a walk as well as his longball, and Sanchez and Smith joined in by recording their first and third RBIs of the season respectively.
The Islanders will now try to get back into the win column in the final game of the Kleberg Bank College Classic on Sunday, facing off against Washington State for first pitch at 3 p.m.
#ShakasUp
