CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team earned its second win in a row in Saturday evening, using another great offensive performance to overcome an early deficit and take down Prairie View A&M by a final score of 10-7.
The Islanders (5-6) secured the series victory over the Panthers (4-7) with the win, their first in a three-game set so far this season. With a win tomorrow, the team would secure its first sweep of a series since March 3-5 of 2023, when they defeated Lindenwood in four consecutive contests.
"I just thought it was just a good college baseball game," said head coach
Scott Malone. "I've been doing this long enough to know that you have to be ready for anything, and I thought we did a great job holding them off. They got the momentum late, but we held them down."
In contrast to the beginning of Friday's game when the Islanders got going quickly at the plate, it was instead the Panthers that came out hot to kick things off on Saturday, with the visitors rallying in each of the first two innings to jump out to a lead early on. Prairie View started things off with a run in the opening frame against junior
Luke Singleton on a two-out RBI single, and it continued the momentum into the second with a pair on an RBI groundout followed by another run-scoring knock with two down that put A&M-Corpus Christi in a 3-0 hole.
The Islanders wouldn't be kept down for long, however, answering back in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior
Mason Persons to get on the board for the first time themselves. This would prove to be the precursor to even more to come soon after, as just two innings later, the team would hang a five spot up in the fourth to not only erase the deficit but build a strong lead of its own. The scoring in the frame started on the basepaths, as with runners on the corners and two outs, senior
Isaac Webb drew a throw down to second on a stolen base attempt that allowed Persons to race home in what ended up as a perfectly executed double steal. This ended up opening the floodgates, with A&M-Corpus Christi continuing the two-out rally with a two-RBI single by senior
Austin Russell, a throwing error that allowed senior
Logan Vaughan to come home and an RBI knock by junior
Karson Krowka that made it a three-run advantage once the dust finally settled.
The offense would continue to pour it on after this, starting with three more runs in the fifth on a run-scoring groundout off the bat of junior
Jackson Smith and a two-RBI triple into the right-center gap by senior
Cade Sanchez and then extending into the sixth with a bases-loaded walk by Russell to make it back-to-back double-digit scoring performances. All of these runs made life much easier on Singleton, who managed to calm down considerably on the mound after his shaky start. The lefty concluded his day by working scoreless in each of his final three innings of work, which helped him finish five full innings of three-run ball to put himself in line for his first win of the season.
"They get a couple runs and you start scratching your head and thinking it might not be your night, but he went and changed the momentum in the third," Malone said. "I thought he cranked that engine up and really shut them down. It let us get away from them, and we needed all of it at the end."
The Panthers did end up piecing together a response late in the game to make things interesting, plating three in the seventh and one in the eighth to cut the Islanders' lead back down to three. This forced the team to summon senior
Cam Soliz out of the bullpen for a four-out save, and he ended up accomplishing exactly that, stranding both of his inherited runners with a huge strikeout and then finishing the ninth in quick order to earn his third save of the young season.
When all was said and done, the Islanders tallied 10 hits on the day and took advantage of six Panther errors to help reach the 10-run threshold for the second straight day, their first time doing so since March 23 and 24 of last year when they tallied 11 and 14 in two straight wins over Incarnate Word. The middle of the order once again led the charge, with the trio of Smith, Sanchez and Russell combining to go 5-13 with a double, a triple and six RBI. Krowka also reached base three separate times via a hit and two walks out of the sixth spot in the order, continuing what has been a nice stretch of games for him lately.
"The thing that jumps out to me is Cade and Austin doing their thing again," Malone said. "They're turning into everyday guys, and it makes my job easy when those first four guys, you can just pencil them in and know they're going to produce. Those guys score four runs and drive in another six, that's how you get to the finish line. The top of the order is really rolling right now."
The Islanders will now try to secure the series sweep in the finale on Sunday, with junior
Gage Burdick set to make the start for first pitch at 1 p.m.
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