CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team was handed a pair of losses in its doubleheader against UTRGV on Saturday, falling in a pitcher's duel by a final of 3-2 in the opener before then getting outpaced on offense 8-6 in the nightcap right after.
The two defeats ensured that the Islanders (9-20, 1-10 SLC) were taken down in a series by the Vaqueros (19-7, 12-2 SLC) for the third consecutive year, with their last win in a set coming back in 2022. They also brought the standings of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, even closer, cutting the Islanders' lead in the season-long competition down to 26-22.
The first game of the day saw the two teams locked in a pitcher's duel, with Islanders starter
Zach Garcia and UTRGV righty Angelo Cabral trading zeroes on the bump for the first four innings of the afternoon. The first hiccup for either arm wouldn't come until the top of the fifth, when the Vaqueros finally broke through against Garcia with a two-out base hit into center by Easton Moomau that brought in a pair and helped the visitors take the first lead of the series for either team. A&M-Corpus Christi responded quickly against Cabral, however, striking for two runs of its own in the bottom of the sixth to level things back up once again. This rally would get going on a single by senior
Austin Russell and a double into left center off the bat of senior
Trey Cruz, and the big swing would come from senior
Isaac Webb, who with two outs smashed a 3-1 pitch off the wall in dead center to score both Russell and Cruz bring the score up to 2-2.
This momentum would unfortunately not carry into the later stages of the game for the Islanders, though, as the Vaqueros ended up retaking the lead in the ninth after manufacturing a run on a hit by pitch, a wild pitch and a groundout that advanced the runner 180 feet, and finally a sacrifice fly that plated the go-ahead run. A&M-Corpus Christi would get the tying run 90 feet away in the bottom of the ninth after senior
Drake Kerr singled and advanced on a groundout and a balk, but he would get stranded on third base when junior
Jackson Smith got just under an 0-1 pitch and flew out to left to end the opener.
Game two ended up being almost the compete opposite of the first, with UTRGV getting the bats going early and often. The Vaqueros struck first once again in the opening frame on a solo home run off the bat of first baseman Jacob Sanchez off of senior
David Dean, and after a pair of zeroes in the next two innings, they would jump back on the board for a three spot in the fourth that was punctuated by another homer from designated hitter Armani Raygoza. The Islanders would respond with their first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth after back-to-back doubles by seniors
Logan Vaughan and
Cade Sanchez, but they were quickly blitzed soon after this in the seventh, allowing three more runs to fall into a deep 8-1 hole.
A&M-Corpus Christi did not roll over despite this deficit, clawing right back into things in the bottom of the seventh by virtue of a five-run showing that saw 10 hitters come up to the plate. The outburst kicked off when Sanchez walked and sophomore
Jarrett Flaggert singled to put a pair of runners on, and it really got off the ground when junior
JJ Bush came off the bench with a pinch-hit RBI single to plate the first run of the frame. Cruz and Webb would soon follow this with a single and a fielder's choice respectively that brought in two more, and to cap things off, Vaughan would lace a liner into left center with the bases loaded for a two-RBI single that cut the Islanders' deficit down to just two.
This would be the closest that the score would get, however, as UTRGV stifled the momentum that the hosts had built with a three-run ninth to once again put them behind the eight ball. The Islanders would score two of their own in their final time up after Vaughan doubled to drive in his third and fourth runs of the game, but that would be all they could muster, going down soon after to take home their second loss of the day.
The best showing from the Islanders offensively came from Vaughan, who combined to go 4-8 with two doubles and four RBIs while also catching all 18 innings on the day. Beyond him, Cruz went 4-9 with a double and an RBI as the designated hitter, and Kerr picked up multi-hit performances in both games on Saturday, which were his first two of the season after missing the first six weeks of the year. On the mound, Garcia recorded his fifth quality start of the season and his fourth in a row in the first contest, tossing seven innings and allowing just one earned run on six hits and a walk while striking out three.
The Islanders will now try to salvage the series with a win in the finale on Sunday, squaring off with the Vaqueros one more time for first pitch at 1 p.m.
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