CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not take home the rubber match of its series against Northwestern State on Sunday afternoon, going cold at the plate and falling by a final score of 8-0.
The loss was the second shutout defeat of the weekend for the Islanders (8-13, 1-5 SLC), as they were also taken down by the Demons (11-8, 5-4 SLC) by a final of 5-0 in the opener on Friday. It also snapped a streak of two straight series wins for them in the all-time series, as they had previously taken two of three games in each of the last two meetings between the two in 2023 and 2024.
The matinee contest on Sunday saw some very strong work on the mound from both teams to kick things off, with the Islanders getting a nice effort from junior
Easten Smith in his third start of the year. Smith managed to finish a season-high five innings, surrendering just a lone earned run on two hits and two walks while matching his previous best with four strikeouts. The Glenn Heights native's lone hiccup came in the second inning, when Northwestern State designated hitter Clay Jung got him for a solo home run, but aside from this, he allowed just one total base runner to reach scoring position.
Unfortunately for Smith, though, his effort was matched on the other side by Demons starter Trent Hillen, who had the Islanders' number at the plate all afternoon long. Over the five innings that Smith worked, Hillen kept the hosts off the board entirely, which brought things to a 1-0 score after the first half of the game. A&M-Corpus Christi did have a good chance in the opening frame after putting runners on the corners with just one out, but it could not capitalize, stranding both and then going down in order in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings.
This slow start allowed Northwestern State to find their groove offensively, and they finally broke through late after Smith's departure. The Demons increased their advantage with a pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh off of a trio of Islanders relievers, a lead that would then grow up all the way to eight in the final two frames. A&M-Corpus Christi could not keep the floodgates from opening at this time, as it allowed the visitors to pick up six of their eight hits on the day in this span while also issuing seven walks and hitting two batters.
Now faced with an even bigger hill to climb, the Islander bats could not break out of their slump, failing to respond with any runs of their own the rest of the way. For the Demons, Hillen worked well enough to get the ball for the final frame and ended up finishing the complete game shutout, inducing a double play off the bat of senior
Trey Cruz and punching out senior
Logan Vaughan to finish the day that he started.
When it was all said and done, A&M-Corpus Christi recorded just four hits as a team and drew a lone walk, getting just two runners past first base on the day. The only extra-base hit of the day came from junior
Karson Krowka in the form of a double in the very first plate appearance of the day, while the other three knocks came from Cruz, senior
Cade Sanchez and junior
JJ Bush.
The Islanders now turn around quickly for a pair of midweek contests, first traveling to College Station to take on Texas A&M on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before then facing off against Prairie View A&M on the road the next day at 2 p.m.
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