FRISCO, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team had one of its players take home some hardware for the second week in a row on Monday afternoon, as it was announced by the league office that junior
Easten Smith was named the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week for the voting period of February 16-22.
Smith earned the award thanks to a pair of excellent performances throughout the week, tossing 7.2 scoreless innings across two different outings against power conference opponents Texas A&M and Pittsburgh. The Glenn Heights native first drew the start in College Station on Tuesday against an Aggies team currently ranked No. 23 in the nation and held their high-powered offense at bay, keeping them off the scoreboard entirely over his three frames of work while allowing just a lone hit. Smith then earned the win against the Panthers in the finale of the Kleberg Bank College Classic on Sunday, starring over 4.2 innings of relief by punching out five batters and allowing just two baserunners in total. The righty was summoned from the bullpen with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning and escaped this jam with the Islanders' lead still intact, which he then followed up by retiring 12 of the final 14 hitters of the game to secure the power conference victory for the team as well as his first individual win with the program.
Smith's accolade marks the second in as many weeks for the Islanders to start 2026, as they began the year by seeing graduate
Cade Sanchez take home the first SLC Hitter of the Week award of the season last Monday. He becomes the first member of the team to be named Pitcher of the Week in more than two years, with the most recent being Riely Hunsaker all the way back on February 19, 2024.
Smith and the rest of the Islanders get back in action for four home games in the coming week, first taking on Prairie View A&M on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before then welcoming Texas Southern to town for a three-game series over the weekend.
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