CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team earned a very impressive win in the final game of the Kleberg Bank College Classic on Sunday evening, erasing a late deficit and coming from behind to stun Washington State by a final score of 8-6.
The win secured a 2-1 record during the tournament for the Islanders (2-5), tying them for the best in the field with both UCLA and Michigan State. They also started off their all-time series against the Cougars on the right foot, as Sunday marked the first meeting between the two in program history.
"What a great win for us," said head coach
Scott Malone. "They're a good team that's going to be good at the end of the year. I thought our guys did a great job of just staying with it and putting together one good at-bat at a time to let the momentum catch up."
Coming off of a game on Saturday in which they struggled to get their bats going outside of a short burst in the middle innings, the Islanders had no such issues at the start of Sunday's contest, jumping all over WSU starter Luke Meyers in the opening frame. Senior
Cade Sanchez started things off out of the three-hole, taking an 0-1 pitch and lacing it into the gap in left center for an RBI double to get the team on the board first. This lead would end up growing almost immediately after, as in the next plate appearance, senior
Austin Russell smoked one just over the wall in the left field corner for his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that put the hosts up by three after just their first time at the plate.
Unfortunately for A&M-Corpus Christi, however, the bats would start to go cold once again, which allowed the Cougars to put together a run of six unanswered runs to not only go ahead but build a solid cushion as well. The majority of these runs came in the form of a four-run outburst in the top of the second against junior starter
Gage Burdick, which came about on two different two-RBI knocks with two outs in the frame. Washington State would then go on to tack on a run apiece in both the fourth and the sixth, with the former coming home on a bunt single and the latter on a knock into center with a runner on second base that made it a three-run game.
The Islanders finally managed to respond on offense in the bottom half of the sixth, scratching their first run across since the opening frame on a balk with runners on second and third and two outs. This initial push proved to be a spark of sorts, as in the next inning, the home team started to rally once again. After the first two hitters were retired, A&M-Corpus Christi got back-to-back baserunners on after an opposite-field single by junior
Jackson Smith and a walk by Sanchez. This brought Russell up again, and on an 0-2 count, the cleanup hitter poked a line drive down the right field line to plate both and level the game back up at 6-6.
Now emboldened with a jolt of energy, the Islanders continued their comeback effort from here, getting going in the box yet again once the eighth rolled around. The rally was kicked off by a double into left field from senior
Josh Blount, and after junior
Karson Krowka followed that up with a base knock to put runners on the corners, the go-ahead run would cross the plate after an errant back pick to third allowed Blount to race home. The team added an insurance run right after as well, with senior
Mason Persons dropping a perfect squeeze bunt down that brought in Krowka and extended its advantage up to two.
At the same time the Islanders' bats started working their way back, the team's bullpen did a fantastic job down the stretch. The best showing from the unit came from freshman
Bryson Shea, who entered while down three in the sixth and tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless ball while giving up just a lone hit and striking out four hitters. Shea departed in line for the win after finishing the eighth and turned the ball over to senior
Cam Soliz, who would go on to finish the job and pick up his second save of the young season after working a perfect ninth on only eight pitches.
On the individual side, Russell was the catalyst for the A&M-Corpus Christi offense, capping off a superb weekend by going 3-4 with two extra-base hits and four of the team's six RBI. Smith also managed to pick up a three-hit game out of the two spot in the in the lineup, and freshman
Tristan Crane rounded out the multi-hit performances with two knocks of his own just two days after earning a hold in relief on the mound against UCLA on Friday. In total, these three combined to pick up eight of the 12 Islander hits on the day and scored four of the eight runs on the basepaths.
"Every time Austin goes up there, you're starting to think, 'Here comes another hit'," said Malone. "He's really carrying this offense early. He and Jackson are doing great things."
The Islanders will now get a chance to earn another win over Washington State on Monday, squaring off against the Cougars once again in a rematch at 1 p.m. at Whataburger Field.
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