CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team picked up its first conference victory of the season on Saturday afternoon, taking down Northwestern State by a final score of 5-2 to even up the series between the two at one game apiece.
A day after the Islanders (8-12, 1-4 SLC) were shut out in the series opener against the Demons (10-8, 4-4 SLC), they came into Saturday's game looking to turn things around at the plate, threatening in the second by putting two runners on base and then finally breaking through and getting on the scoreboard in the third. They started their first big rally of the day quickly, with senior
Josh Blount leading off the frame with a base hit and juniors
Karson Krowka and
Jackson Smith following soon after with a hit by pitch and a walk to load the bases. This brought up senior
Isaac Webb in his first start of the year out of the cleanup spot, and he did his job in his new place in the order by bringing home Blount with an RBI fielder's choice on a hard-hit ground ball that forced a late throw to the bag at second and moved everyone up one base. A&M-Corpus Christi would continue to add on after this as well, scoring another in the next plate appearance on a sacrifice fly by senior
Trey Cruz and then making it 3-0 thanks to a two-out RBI single into center off the bat of senior
Logan Vaughan.
This early advantage helped out starter
Bryson Shea on the mound, who came out of the gates strong in what was just his second start of the season. The freshman tossed a perfect frame in his first inning of work before then managing to work through a pair of jams in both the third and fourth to keep the Islanders in front, getting out of the former with a big strikeout to leave a pair in scoring position and stranding runners on the corners in the latter with a nice 5-4-3 double play. It wouldn't be until the fifth that Northwestern State finally got to Shea, jumping on the board for two runs on a pickoff error and a single up the middle, both with two outs in the inning. The Idaho native finished his day throwing 4.2 innings, allowing the two runs (neither of which were earned) on eight hits while striking out two against one walk.
After this punch by the Demons, the Islanders wasted no time responding with one of their own, getting both runs back in the bottom of the fifth to increase their lead back up to a more comfortable three. This rally happened all with two outs, starting with a double into the corner in left by Webb and continuing with a triple to the wall in left center off the bat of Cruz to bring in the first run of the frame. Making it two was a familiar face in Vaughan, who picked up his second RBI of the day on another single, this one going in a very similar spot as his first one just two innings prior.
As it turns out, this would prove to be all the scoring that the Islanders would need on the day, thanks to a fantastic performance from junior
Gage Burdick out of the bullpen. Burdick first entered the game in the fifth in relief of Shea, starting his day by putting out the fire and stranding the tying run on base. From here, he worked nearly perfectly the rest of the way, taking the final four frames all by himself while holding the Demons off of the board entirely to earn his first win as a member of the Islanders. The lefty rarely ran into trouble during his outing, facing no more than four hitters in any one frame while not allowing a single Northwestern State baserunner to advance into scoring position. Burdick's final line finished at 4.1 scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit and walking one while striking out four.
On the offensive side, Vaughan was the key performer for A&M-Corpus Christi, reaching base three times via two hits and a walk and driving in two of the team's five runs. In addition to Vaughan, Cruz also picked up two RBIs of his own, doing so while getting on twice and picking up a sacrifice fly to continue his hot stretch dating back to Monday.
The Islanders will now try to emerge victorious in the rubber match of the series against Northwestern State on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. With a victory, A&M-Corpus Christi would pick up its third straight series win over the Demons dating back to 2023.
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