CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team started off the 2026 season with a bang on Thursday evening, getting excellent performances up and down the roster on its way to an 11-1 run-rule victory in eight innings over Stonehill College.
The Islanders' (1-0) offense was the big story of the day, as they banged out 14 hits and five extra-base hits on their way to their 11-run outburst against the Skyhawks (0-1). This double-digit onslaught marked the first time that they put up 10 or more runs in a season opener since they also hung 11 on the board in a win over UT Arlington in 2023, and it helped them reach that plateau much faster than they did a season ago, when they didn't hit it until their 10
th game of the year in a 14-4 win over Prairie View A&M.
"I thought everybody played well," Islanders head coach
Scott Malone said after securing the first win of his 19th season at the helm. "We pitched it, we played defense, and we hit, so that's a pretty good way of drawing it up. You expect that maybe something won't be there on a given night and you'll have to figure out a way, but everyone brought their A-game."
After going down in order in the opening frame, A&M-Corpus Christi got its day started in the bottom of the second, getting its first run of the new season on an RBI double into the left center gap by junior
Noah Cassie, who drove in senior
Jackson Smith all the way from first after he had reached on a leadoff single right before. Later in the inning, the team would tack on another run, doubling up its lead on a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior
Max Towchik for his first RBI with the program.
The Islanders would continue to push with the bats as the game moved into the middle innings, starting with a three-spot in the third that extended their advantage even further. The first of these runs was brought in by a sac fly from Smith, and after a Cassie single to put runners on first and second, graduate
Cade Sanchez would cash in, bringing both home with a two-RBI double that made it 5-0 in favor of the hosts.
At the same time this was going on, junior
Preston Watkins was given the ball to make the Opening Day start on the other side, and the returning righty responded with a masterful performance to ring in the new year. Watkins tossed four complete innings during his outing, surrendering just one hit on the day while striking out seven hitters against a lone walk. The Deer Park native started things off by retiring each of the first eight batters that he faced, and after giving up a hit and a walk to consecutive batters following this streak, he would escape his only jam of the day with a punchout before then sitting down the side in order in the fourth to end his outing on a high note.
"I think he's going to be good, and we need him to be good if this team has championship aspirations," Malone said about Watkins. "The biggest thing to take away from the night was that he looked like a real Friday night guy. With
Zach Garcia gone, we're looking for who can go out there and look like a Friday night guy, and that looked like one right there."
Supported by this excellent showing from Watkins, the Islanders offense would not let up, continuing to add to its total even after the starter's departure. The biggest swing of the night came in the bottom of the fifth, when Smith came up with a runner on and deposited a 2-1 pitch over the right field fence for both his and the team's first home run of the season, getting his tally started after he tied for the team lead in dingers last year with six. Two more runs would come in an inning later on an RBI triple into the alley in right center by pinch hitter
Isaiah Afework and another sacrifice fly by Smith, and to cap things off, the team secured the run-rule in the eighth on another RBI double by Sanchez and finally a run-scoring single by junior
Jack Bergstrom to get the lead up the necessary 10 runs.
Individually, the Islanders were led by some familiar faces, with the returning trio of Smith, graduate
Austin Russell and Sanchez combining to go 8-10 with three extra-base hits, seven RBIs and seven runs scored. These three were joined with multiple hits by Cassie, who in between them in the batting order went 2-5 with a double and an RBI. On the mound, the bullpen picked up right where Watkins left off, as junior
John Paul Buckner earned the victory on the day by following the starter with 2.1 innings of one-run, four-strikeout ball, and junior
Chandler Fowler took things to the finish line by recording the final five outs while punching out two and allowing just a lone hit-by-pitch.
The Islanders will now try to build on their Opening Day victory in their doubleheader against the Skyhawks on Saturday, with the first game currently scheduled to start at 2 p.m.
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