CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team salvaged the final game of their series against UTRGV on Sunday, earning their first win of the weekend by a final of 3-2 on a walk-off double by junior
Christian Smith-Johnson.
With the win, the Islanders (10-20, 2-10 SLC) picked up an important two points in the season-long South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, increasing their lead over the Vaqueros (19-8, 12-3 SLC) up to 28-22. They can now secure the trophy for the second year in a row in their next meeting, which will come in tennis on April 12 at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center in Corpus Christi.
For the second game in a row, the Islanders were forced to play from behind from the very beginning of things, as the Vaqueros managed to jump out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Thomas Williams. This turned out to be the only run by either team for a while, with freshman
Bryson Shea and UTRGV starter Víctor Loa each bringing their best stuff throughout the entirety of their outings. Shea tossed a season-high five innings, allowing just the one run on four hits while striking out four, while Loa lasted the same amount of time and surrendered just a lone bunt single to senior
Drake Kerr in the first but otherwise held A&M-Corpus Christi off the board entirely.
The Islanders would not break through until after Loa's departure, finally getting going with the bats starting in the bottom of the sixth. Senior
Trey Cruz got the rally started when he singled back to the pitcher and then advanced into scoring position on a passed ball, which set the table for senior
Isaac Webb to level things up at one apiece with an RBI base hit on a line drive right back up the middle. The team would then go on to come through with the go-ahead run two innings later, breaking the tie in the eighth when senior
Logan Vaughan blooped a 2-2 pitch into center with two outs that fell in between three fielders and allowed Kerr to come home from second base to make it a 2-1 game.
This lead did not hold for long, however, as UTRGV responded with a run in the top of the ninth on a one-out wild pitch thrown by freshman
Tristan Crane, who had previously worked three very solid innings in relief of Shea. The Vaqueros would threaten after this as well, chasing Crane with a base hit and then loading the bases against new reliever
Gage Burdick soon after. Burdick would bear down and prevent any further damage, though, picking up a huge strikeout of cleanup hitter Armani Raygoza on a 3-2 count to strand the go-ahead run on third.
This escape gave the Islanders a prime opportunity to walk away with a win in the bottom of the ninth, where they started things off with a base hit up the middle by junior
Jarrett Flaggert. A sacrifice bunt by senior
Mason Persons would move Flaggert up 90 feet to second base, which left Smith-Johnson the chance to play the hero against new reliever Steven Oliva. Smith-Johnson would not wait long in his at-bat, taking Oliva's very first pitch and lacing it right down the line in left field to bring in Flaggert and send the team out of the dugout in a frenzy to celebrate the walk-off win.
"It's how we drew it up from the time UTRGV scored in the ninth," said head coach
Scott Malone. "Flaggert's going to get on base, we're going to bunt him over, and then
Christian Smith-Johnson is going to go win it. I've seen this show before. We haven't seen it enough this year, but I've seen it at this stadium before, and I've seen SJ do it. I'm super excited for those guys."
Beyond the heroics of Smith-Johnson, the story of the day was the performance of the Islanders' pitching staff, which allowed just two total runs to the high-powered UTRGV lineup. Shea and Crane were especially impressive, with the two freshmen combining to toss 8.2 innings while keeping the team in the game all throughout the afternoon. On offense, Kerr recorded a multi-hit game for the third time in the last two days since making his return to the lineup, while Vaughan and Smith-Johnson did the big damage with an RBI double apiece.
"We needed those guys to extend," Malone said about his pitchers. "Shea got a talking to on the mound, but he handled it well and kept going and getting us more and more outs. He went further than we expected and handed it over to Crane, and he also went further than we thought. Just some moxie from two 18-year-old kids to really compete and keep going."
The Islanders will now try to ride the momentum from the win into a big midweek contest, as they now hit the road to square off against Houston on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
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