CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team made its return to Chapman Field a good one on Friday evening, taking down Prairie View A&M in eight innings by a run-rule final score of 14-4 after catching fire at the plate all game long.
The 14 runs that the Islanders (4-6) tallied was their highest of the young season so far, nearly doubling the previous high of eight that they scored in both of their games against Washington State on Sunday and Monday. The last time they scored at least that many in a single game came back on March 24 of last season, when they also tallied 14 on the road in a win over Incarnate Word.
Coming off a loss on Wednesday at Houston-Victoria where they struggled to piece together rallies for much of the middle innings, the Islanders came out determined to flip the script on Friday, jumping on the board for a trio of runs in the first. They wasted no time getting their first rally of the game going, loading up the bases with no one out on back-to-back base hits from seniors
Isaac Webb and
Cade Sanchez and a walk from junior
Jackson Smith. The prime opportunity after this would fall to senior
Austin Russell, and the cleanup hitter would take advantage, bouncing one just off of the outstretched glove of the shortstop for a base hit that brought the two lead runners across the plate. This lead would grow as well, reaching three by the end of the inning after senior
Mason Persons worked a great at-bat and drew a walk with the bases loaded.
"The three in the first let us exhale a little bit," said head coach
Scott Malone. "We talked about having a tough game on Wednesday and not letting that lead into the weekend and snowball, so we were really excited to see us get a zero to start and then answer with three in the first. It allowed us to relax and play our game."
An answer from the Panthers (4-6) would soon come in the top of the second on a two-run home run off of starter
Zach Garcia, but the momentum from the visitors would not hold, as the Islanders would continue to put on the pressure in the batter's box in the form of a four-run third inning. This time, it was the bottom of the lineup starting things off, with the scoring in the frame getting going with an RBI triple into the right-center gap by junior
Christian Smith-Johnson. Persons would cross home as the next run on a wild pitch, and to cap things off, Webb placed one in the exact spot that Smith-Johnson did for a triple of his own that plated two more and made it a 7-2 lead in favor of the home team.
This advantage helped Garcia to settle down on the mound after the second, as over the remainder of his outing, he surrendered just a lone unearned run in the fifth on an errant throw on a stolen base attempt. It was not Garcia's most efficient start, surrendering eight hits and walking a pair of batters, but he managed to bear down and complete five full innings while allowing just the two earned runs and punching out five Panthers hitters.
In the meantime, the Islanders continued to pour it on offensively, tallying a run in the fourth and three in the fifth to make it up into double digits on the day. The culmination would come in the form of another crooked number in the eighth, with A&M-Corpus Christi plating three more to bring the game to its early conclusion. With the bases loaded and two outs, Webb would race home on a passed ball, and almost immediately after, senior
Logan Vaughan beat out an infield single that brought in the other runners and make it the 10-run lead needed to send the team and the home fans home happy.
In total, the Islanders racked up 12 hits and drew eight walks on the day, placing traffic on the basepaths in all but one of the eight innings on the night. Webb set the tone at the top of the order, notching three hits – including a triple and a double – and driving home two runs. Russell and Vaughan also put together multi-RBI performances in the middle of the lineup, and Smith managed to reach base three times via a hit and two walks.
"I think the biggest thing was the top of the order," Malone said. "When the first three spots in the order get five hits, that's a good night. That jump started us and got us going. If Isaac especially is going to play like he did today, we're going to be a good team."
The Islanders will now try to clinch a series victory in the second game of the set against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, sending junior
Luke Singleton to the hill to make the start at 6:30 p.m.
