HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not pull off the midweek upset in their game on Wednesday, getting taken down on the road by Houston by a final score of 9-1.
The Ioss was the eighth in 12 all-time meetings for the Islanders (10-21, 2-10 SLC) against the Cougars (16-12, 3-6 Big 12), and the first since an extra-inning loss at home in 2021. It was also their eighth defeat in nine tries against a power conference opponent this season, with the only victory coming over No. 14 UCLA on February 21.
From the beginning of Wednesday's game, the Islanders were able to hang in tough, jumping out to an early lead and playing even with the hosts through the first few innings of the night. They managed to strike first in the opening frame, doing so when after senior
Isaac Webb got a rally started with a two-out knock, senior
Trey Cruz cashed in with a double into the left-center gap that brought Webb all the way home and put them up 1-0 before even taking the field. Houston would ensure this lead would not last long, though, tying the game back up at one in the bottom half of the inning on a wild pitch thrown by starter
Luke Singleton with two outs.
After the two teams traded zeroes over the next two innings, it was the Cougars that managed to pull away, taking their first lead of the day thanks to a three-run fourth inning that came on a throwing error followed by back-to-back solo home runs. This would be the start to a stretch of eight unanswered runs by Houston, with Islanders relievers surrendering two more in the sixth and three in the eighth to further increase their deficit up to the eight runs in which it would eventually end at.
On the other side, A&M-Corpus Christi could not recapture its form at the plate from early in the game, as its hitters were held off of the scoreboard entirely the rest of the way. The Islanders had their chances to get the bats going, getting traffic on the basepaths via eight hits and four walks, but they ended up stranding 10 total runners on base without capitalizing on any of them. Their best opportunity came in the third when they placed three straight runners on with two outs on walks by Cruz and sophomore
Jarrett Flaggert sandwiched around a single by senior
Cade Sanchez, but they could not extend the rally beyond this, grounding out harmlessly to end the threat before it got off the ground.
The only multi-hit game of the day for the Islanders came from senior
Austin Russell, who tallied two singles in his four plate appearances, and the only extra-base hit and RBI belonged to Cruz on his one swing in the first. On the mound, the best performances came from senior
Cam Soliz and sophomore
Luke Robertson, with the former working 1.2 scoreless innings and the latter tossing a shutout frame himself.
The Islanders will now set their sights toward the weekend, when they travel to Nacogdoches for a three-game conference series against Stephen F. Austin. The set will kick off on Friday, with first pitch currently scheduled for 3 p.m.
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