BEAUMONT, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not take home the victory in its series-opening game against Lamar on Friday evening, getting taken down by a final score of 2-0 despite an outstanding effort on the mound from senior
Zach Garcia.
The Islanders (9-15, 1-6 SLC) were shut out for the fifth time this season and the third time in the last week, with the most recent two also coming in a conference series against Northwestern State last weekend at Chapman Field. The first two happened back in the opening series of the 2025 season, when they were blanked by Kansas in back-to-back games on February 16 and 17.
The only scoring of the game for either team came in the bottom of the second, when the Cardinals (17-7, 4-6 SLC) struck for both of their runs with two outs in the frame. The inning started off promising for the Islanders, as they cut down the first score of the game at home plate on a nice play by second baseman
Cade Sanchez and looked to get out of things on a ball in play, but an error by third baseman
Karson Krowka extended the inning for Lamar centerfielder Tab Tracy with a pair of runners on. Tracy did not miss this chance, shooting one into the gap in right center off of Garcia to score both and put A&M-Corpus Christi into an early 2-0 hole.
This would turn out to be the only hiccup of the game for Garcia on the mound, who ended up working nearly perfect the rest of the night. The lefty held the Cardinals off of the board entirely after the second, allowing just two base runners over the final six innings while not enabling either of them to advance into scoring position. Included in this was a stretch of 16 batters retired in a row, as after allowing a leadoff single in the third, he would get out of the inning with a double play and then not give up anything else until he finally issued a walk with two outs in the eighth that was promptly stranded one batter later. By the time his night was done, Garcia surrendered just the two unearned runs across eight innings of work while allowing three hits and one walk against five strikeouts, which lowered his ERA on the season down to a sterling mark of 2.79.
Unfortunately for Garcia, he was still saddled with his third loss of the season even despite his best efforts, as the team could not do enough to pick him up. The Islanders actually outhit Lamar on the night, tallying seven knocks as opposed to the three picked up by the hosts, but their issues came in their inability to capitalize in the eight frames that they managed to put at least one runner on base. Their best chance came in the second inning, which was brought about by a base hit from senior
Mason Persons and a nice bunt by junior
Christian Smith-Johnson that forced an errant throw and placed two runners in scoring position with one out. Both Persons and Smith-Johnson would end up getting stranded where they stood, though, with the two failing to advance after freshman
Chad Pantuso was retired on a bunt of his own and senior
Isaac Webb flew out to left to end the most promising threat of the game.
Of the seven hits that A&M-Corpus Christi managed on Friday, four of them came from just two players, with Webb and senior
Trey Cruz both picking up multi-hit performances in the top half of the lineup. Persons reached base twice himself with a hit and the team's only walk of the day, and seniors
Austin Russell and
Logan Vaughan rounded things out with one knock apiece.
The Islanders will now try to get their offense going in the second game of the series on Saturday, with first pitch from Beaumont currently scheduled for 5 p.m.
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