EDINBURG, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not complete the upset in the first round of the Southland Conference Baseball Championship on Thursday evening, hanging in close but fading late and falling to No. 2 UTRGV by a final score of 11-8.
With the loss, the seventh-seeded Islanders now find themselves in a do-or-die situation on Friday, taking on No. 3 Lamar in an elimination game at 1 p.m. The winner of that game would then take on the loser of the Vaqueros and No. 6 Houston Christian, who took down the Cardinals in the first game of the opening day of the tournament
Fresh off of a stretch of six wins in nine games to close out the regular season, the Islanders carried over their recent hot streak into the beginning of Thursday's game, taking control of things early with four runs in just the first two innings of play. They started this stretch off in the opening frame, jumping on the board when after senior
Isaac Webb doubled off the wall in center field and then stole third, an error on a ground ball off the bat of sophomore
Jarrett Flaggert allowed Webb to come home and make it a 1-0 game. The team would then piece together three more in the top of the second, scoring on a bases loaded walk by senior
Drake Kerr and a two-RBI single from Webb to stretch its early advantage up to four.
This would be answered by an even bigger one from the Vaqueros, with the hosts striking for seven unanswered runs soon after and punctuating the stretch with a grand slam to go up 7-4. This outburst did not phase the Islanders, though, as they would respond with another flurry of their own in the sixth to get themselves right back into the game. They kicked off the frame by showing off their patience as a unit, drawing three consecutive walks to load the bases with no one out. This set the stage for Kerr at the top of the order, who came through by bouncing a ground ball right up the middle to plate both of the lead runners. After this came a perfectly executed double steal, with Kerr getting caught at second but still buying enough time for junior
Karson Krowka to come home from third to tie the ballgame back up at seven apiece.
Unfortunately for A&M-Corpus Christi, though, it could not keep the score knotted up, as UTRGV would once again strike for four two-out runs in the bottom half of the sixth to regain its lead and then some. The Islanders did manage to get a small rally going in their final time up, scoring one last run on a sacrifice fly by junior
Jackson Smith, but they could not keep things rolling and were stopped before their comeback effort really got off the ground.
A&M-Corpus Christi was led on offense by Kerr and Webb at the top of the order, as the outfielders combined to go 3-9 while driving in five of the team's eight runs on the day. Aside from Webb, the only other multi-hit effort belonged to senior
Cade Sanchez, who reached base in all four of his plate appearances by going 2-2 with two walks while also scoring two runs. On the mound, the best efforts came from junior relievers
Nathan Darden and
Braden LaRusso, with the two managing to stop the bleeding in the later innings by combining to toss 2.1 innings of scoreless ball with three punchouts to keep the team in the game.
The Islanders will now try to extend their season another day on Friday, sending senior ace
Zach Garcia to the mound for first pitch at 1 p.m. looking to take down Lamar in a win-or-go-home scenario.
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