CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team put the cherry on top of an incredible opening weekend on Sunday, emerging victorious over Stonehill in the resumption of its postponed game on Saturday by a final score of 11-8 before then turning around and securing an 11-1 run-rule win in the nightcap to earn the series sweep.
The Islanders (4-0) showcased a level of dominance to kick off the year, outscoring the Skyhawks (0-4) by a combined total of 45-15 across the four games over the weekend. They scored at least 11 runs in every contest, marking the first time in program history that the team plated 10 or more in each of its first four games to open any single season. This surpassed the previous top streak of three, which occurred during a sweep of Texas Southern all the way back on February 4-6, 2006, two years before head coach
Scott Malone took the reins.
"We dealt with a lot of stuff this weekend, and I thought the guys handled it great," Malone said. "I think when you pitch and throw strikes, it speeds up the tempo and everybody just jumps on the escalator and starts playing, and that's what happened for us all weekend."
Game 1: A&M-Corpus Christi 11, Stonehill 8
The two teams started off the day by picking up where they left off on Saturday night, when the nightcap of the originally planned doubleheader was suspended in the bottom of the second inning due to inclement weather after Stonehill had taken a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. Both squads were forced to send out new pitchers because of the circumstances, and the Islanders settled on true freshman
Bronson Lange, who took the ball for his first collegiate appearance and proceeded to toss three scoreless innings. Lange sat down the first five hitters that he faced, and after allowing a walk and a hit with two outs in the fourth, he proceeded to retire the next four batters to conclude his day strong.
This effort from Lange helped keep the Islanders close until they finally broke through in a massive way, putting together an eight-run onslaught in the bottom of the fourth to take firm control of the game. All of these runs were plated with two outs, starting with an RBI single from junior
Walker Freeman that scored senior
Jackson Smith from second. The next one would come in when junior
Max Towchik raced home on a wild pitch, and after two straight walks to load the bases, the inning was extended by an error that plated another to make it 3-1. Graduate
Austin Russell capitalized on the mistake one batter later by lacing a base hit to score two of his own, and to cap things off, Smith came up again and picked up a two-RBI double and then scored during the next plate appearance on a single from
Cade Sanchez and a throwing error to bring the hosts' lead up to seven.
After two more runs for A&M-Corpus Christi in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI knock by junior
Hunter Azemar and another error, the Skyhawks began to make things interesting, putting together a six-run rally of their own in the top of the seventh to cut what had been a nine-run Islander lead down to just three. Junior
Pierre-Luc Jacques was summoned from the bullpen to clean up the jam with the tying run at the plate, and the Canadian came up big, punching out his very first hitter faced with the team to keep the advantage where it stood.
A run in the bottom of the same inning on another run-scoring single by Azemar built the Islanders' lead back up to four, which proved to be more than enough for Jacques to carry the rest of the way. The righty did surrender one run in the top of the ninth, but that would be all, as he induced the final two outs to lock up the series victory.
Game 2: A&M-Corpus Christi 11, Stonehill 1 (F/7)
The second game of the day started in similar fashion to the one before it, with Stonehill scratching across a run in the top of the third to strike first blood. After starting out slow with the bats on their end, the Islanders would respond in the fifth, first leveling up the score when senior
Christian Smith-Johnson shot the gap in right center for an RBI triple. Russell would cash in Smith-Johnson with a sacrifice fly during the next plate appearance, and with two outs in the same frame, Sanchez roped a liner that was misplayed by the left fielder, allowing the third run of the inning to cross the plate.
This proved to be the precursor to what was to come just one inning later, as when the sixth rolled around, A&M-Corpus Christi exploded for the second time on the day, pushing across eight more runs to essentially put the contest out of reach. The first two of these were scored off of a pair of Stonehill errors, which set up the bases loaded for junior
Noah Cassie, who sent a 2-1 pitch right down the left field run to plate the next two. A Towchik bloop single in the next at bat brought the total in the frame up to five, and after a failed pickoff attempt scratched off another one, junior
Jack Bergstrom crushed an RBI triple to bring the Islanders up to double digits for the record-setting fourth straight game.
"I think there's a lot of talent of the offensive end," Malone said. "I've been saying for a month to look for
Christian Smith-Johnson,
Austin Russell and
Jackson Smith as the 22-year old seniors that have been through it, and
Cade Sanchez showed some flashes of joining that trio and making it a quartet. The rest of the guys are going to have their moments as well, and they all did this weekend."
While this was going on, the Islanders got a very nice start from sophomore
Bryson Shea, who reclaimed his Sunday rotation spot that he earned during his freshman campaign in 2025 and started his year with five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. The only trouble that Shea ran into came in the third, but aside from that, the Idaho native starred, giving up just a lone hit in his other four frames and setting down the side in three of them. After his day was done, redshirt junior
Matthew Molina was handed the ball, and he brought the game to its early conclusion with two clean innings himself, allowing just one baserunner and striking out four of his seven batters faced.
The Islanders will now hit the road for the first time in 2026 in their next contest, traveling up to College Station for a big test against No. 25 Texas A&M on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m.
"It was a fun weekend," Malone said. "Everybody played well, and I told them to enjoy it until tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll get ready for the Aggies."
#ShakasUp
