HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team split its doubleheader against Houston Christian on Saturday, falling in walk-off fashion by a final score of 4-3 in the first game before bouncing back and taking home a well-earned 5-1 win in the nightcap.
Saturday was the second doubleheader of the year for the Islanders (17-28, 9-17 SLC), with the team faring better than the last one in which they were swept by UTRGV on March 29. The win in the second game also helped them stay positive against the Huskies (25-20, 16-10 SLC) in recent years, moving their record in the matchup up to 8-7 dating back to the 2021 season.
The day started out with a big milestone for the Islanders in the first game, as senior
Zach Garcia toed the rubber for his 45
th career start with the team, making him the new all-time leader in program history in the category. The lefty wasn't just content with reaching this achievement, though, as he went on to record his sixth quality start of the season by tossing seven innings and allowing just three earned runs while punching out three hitters. Despite surrendering eight hits, Garcia was able to limit the damage against him very effectively, doing so by holding the Huskies to only one extra-base hit in the form of a double in the sixth and issuing just a pair of free passes.
While Garcia worked in the opener, the A&M-Corpus Christi lineup made the game a back-and-forth affair, playing to three ties and two lead changes through the first seven innings. The bats struck for their first run in the top of the fifth, when after senior
Trey Cruz reached base via a one-out single,
Isaac Webb smashed a triple into center that brought Cruz in all the way from first. The team would then go on to take the lead in the top of the sixth on a two-out RBI single by sophomore
Jarrett Flaggert, and after falling behind 3-2 soon after, they would level things back up in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by senior
Cade Sanchez.
Unfortunately for the Islanders, they could not complete the comeback effort in the later innings, stranding runners in scoring position in both the eighth and the ninth. This gave HCU a prime opportunity to walk things off, and the hosts managed to do exactly that, getting a game-winning home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to send A&M-Corpus Christi to a tough loss in the first game.
Once game two got underway, the Islanders made it a focus to get out to a better start, jumping on the Huskies for two early runs in the second to take control of the nightcap. The scoring opened up on an RBI single by Webb, the third base knock in a row to start the frame after Cruz and senior
Austin Russell also did so, and it continued on a sacrifice bunt from junior
Karson Krowka that brought in Russell.
This early offense provided a lead to senior starter
David Dean, who made the most of it by putting together a very nice showing on the mound for the second week in a row. Dean made it through 5.2 innings – his second-longest outing of the season – while surrendering just a lone run on seven hits, limiting the damage in the same way Garcia did a few hours earlier. The closest the Huskies came to breaking through against Dean came in his sixth and final frame when he was lifted after allowing a pair of runners to reach base, but sophomore
Matthew Molina came in and did his job in relief, walking his first hitter but inducing a groundout to strand the bases loaded and preserve the lead.
The efforts of these two were aided by some more insurance runs by the offense, as the Islanders added three more in the sixth to increase their lead up to four. After the first three batters of the frame reached base consecutively, Russell and Webb cashed them all in immediately after, with the former lifting a sacrifice fly out to center and the latter ripping a two-RBI double to make it four on the day and a team-leading 27 on the season. These tallies would give Molina all he would need to bring the game all the way to its conclusion, as the righty retired nine of the final 10 hitters that he faced to earn a rare 3.1 inning save for his second of the season.
At the plate, the Islanders were led on Saturday by Webb, who combined to go 3-6 with a triple and a double to go along with his four RBI. Cruz also pitched in across the doubleheader, going 3-8 with a double and four runs scored, and senior
Drake Kerr rounded out those with at least three hits on the day.
The Islanders will now try to secure their second straight conference series victory with a win Sunday, returning to square off against the Huskies in the finale at 2 p.m.
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