CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team stayed hot on the second day of the 2026 season on Saturday, cruising to a 12-5 win over Stonehill in the first game of their doubleheader before seeing the second postponed due to inclement weather.
Like in their Opening Day victory on Friday, the Islanders (2-0) blitzed the Skyhawks (0-2) with their bats in the afternoon tilt, getting into double digits for the second straight game to start the year. This marked just the second time in program history that the team scored 10 or more runs in each of its first two contests of a season, with the only other instance coming all the way back in 2006, when they put up 14 and 18 in two straight wins over Texas Southern.
This onslaught with the bats started right away, as A&M-Corpus Christi drew first blood in the opening frame with a rally that started on a walk from senior
Christian Smith-Johnson and a base hit by graduate
Austin Russell that moved the former up to third base. Smith-Johnson would come around to score two batters later, as on a dropped third strike with graduate
Cade Sanchez at the plate, the speedy outfielder bolted for home on the throw to first and just beat the return throw back to the plate to scratch across the first of many runs on the day.
After Stonehill responded with runs in the second and third to take its first lead of the series, the Islanders quickly got back to work, regaining their advantage back with a four spot in the bottom of the third. Smith-Johnson and Russell once again got things started with a pair of walks, and after a double steal got them both into scoring position, Sanchez cashed them both in with a double into the right center gap to continue his excellent start to the year. The second baseman would go on to score himself immediately after when he raced all the way home on a wild pitch, and after a pitching change, junior
Noah Cassie would make it four in the inning after he scored on a throwing error while the Skyhawks tried to turn a double play.
The middle innings would not slow down the A&M-Corpus Christi bats, as they managed to keep pouring it on to eventually make their way up to the aforementioned double-digit plateau. The Islanders plated three more in the fifth on another error followed by a two-run single by Russell, and the very next inning, the biggest swing of the day would come in the form of a three-run home run just over the right field wall by junior
Max Towchik for his first longball with the program. In the seventh, Sanchez would do his thing again with an RBI infield single, which brought home Smith-Johnson for the team's final run of the game. A three-run homer from Stonehill in the top of the same inning prevented the hosts from reaching the run-rule for the second straight day, but the cushion that they built proved to be more than enough to last the rest of the way.
Like Friday, the Islanders got many different standout performances in the lineup, chief among them being Sanchez, who followed up his three-hit performance in the opener with another one a day later, going 3-4 with three RBIs. Towchik matched him in RBIs with the one big swing while also picking up a multi-hit game of his own, a category in which they were both joined in by Russell and junior
Isaiah Afework, who picked up a pair of knocks from the sixth spot in the order.
On the mound, the star of the show was senior
Luke Singleton, who came in relief of starter
Nathan Mueller in the third inning and proceeded to work 3.1 hitless innings while walking just two and striking out four. Also putting together an impressive performance out of the bullpen was junior
Nicho Crowley, with the righty coming on with one out in the seventh and bringing the game to its conclusion with 2.2 scoreless innings while surrendering just a lone knock and punching out three.
Immediately following the big win, the Islanders and Skyhawks got back into action for the second game of the doubleheader, with Stonehill jumping out to a 1-0 lead before rain and lightning rolled around in the middle of the second inning, which led to the postponement of the contest. The game is set to be resumed at 1 p.m. on Sunday, and the series finale will be played shortly after that conclusion as part of another doubleheader.
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