THIBODAUX, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not avoid the sweep in the finale of its series against Nicholls on Sunday afternoon, falling by a final score of 5-2 after getting outgunned during the game's middle innings.
With the loss, the Islanders (6-10, 0-3 SLC) were officially swept for the second time this year, with the other one coming at the hands of Kansas in a four-game set to open the season. So far, all of the team's series of three or more games have ended in sweeps one way or the other, as they were also on the winning end of one just last weekend at home against Prairie View A&M.
Coming off of a 15-3 run-rule loss to the Colonels (8-9, 3-3 SLC) on Saturday, the Islanders made it a point to try to get the bats going early, getting a pair of base runners on in the opening frame and then breaking through for their first run of the afternoon two innings later in the third. The score came courtesy of senior
Isaac Webb, who in his first start in the second spot in the lineup this season came up and smacked an RBI single up the middle, scoring sophomore
Will Stark from second base and giving the team the first lead of the day for either team.
This advantage would not hold for long, as Nicholls would respond by scoring two in the bottom half of the same frame on an RBI groundout and a solo home run off of freshman starter
Bryson Shea. Now trailing for the first time, A&M-Corpus Christi quickly threw their own counterpunch, leveling things back up in the fourth on a first-pitch solo shot off the bat of senior
Chance Reisdorph. This was the first longball of the year for the Islanders catcher, and it marked the first for the team during the weekend series.
Much like they did just one inning earlier, the Colonels answered back in an even stronger fashion, this time getting out even further ahead with a three spot in the bottom of the fourth. They first jumped on the Islanders by blasting their second home run in as many innings, this one a two-run shot with two outs that made the score 4-2 and chased Shea from the game. They then kept things rolling against reliever
David Dean upon his entrance out of the bullpen, getting an RBI single two batters later to increase A&M-Corpus Christi's deficit up to three.
After this big outburst, the Islanders went cold with the bats on their end of things, failing to respond the rest of the way despite getting at least one runner into scoring position in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings. This came primarily due to the fact that they did not record a single hit over the last half of the game, getting the remainder of their traffic on the bases on five walks but never finishing their rallies with an exclamation point. This dry spell allowed Nicholls to slowly build its lead, eventually reaching its five-run margin of victory with a pair of runs in the eighth that ended up putting the final nail in the coffin of the visitors.
The best performer of the day for the Islanders was Webb, who tallied two of the team's six hits while driving in his ninth run of the season. Junior
Jackson Smith also reached base three times out of the third spot in the order right behind Webb, and Reisdorph did so twice via a walk and his home run in the fourth.
The Islanders will now try to get off of their current skid in their next game on Monday, quickly turning around and ending their road trip with a stop in Houston to take on Rice for a nonconference matchup at 6 p.m.
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