CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team won both games of its doubleheader against Texas Southern on Saturday, taking home the resumption of its postponed contest from Friday night in walk-off fashion before then turning around and holding on late in the nightcap to earn its second victory of the day.
The two triumphs over the Tigers (4-4) gave the Islanders (8-3) their second series win of the year, with the first being a four-game sweep of Stonehill College during the season's opening weekend. They also brought the team's current winning streak up to four games, making it two of at least that many so far on the young season after it didn't have any of that length throughout the entirety of the 2025 campaign.
Game 1: A&M-Corpus Christi 5, Texas Southern 4
The action in the first game of the day picked up where it left off on Friday, with junior
Preston Watkins returning to the mound after facing three batters prior to the postponement the night before. Although his time on the hill was abbreviated due to the quick turnaround between days, Watkins put together another solid start, tossing three shutout innings while allowing just a lone hit and striking out four in total. This line looked even better in Saturday's portion of his outing, as the righty retired seven of the eight hitters that he faced while allowing just one man to reach via the walk before then stranding the runner with back-to-back punchouts to end his day.
The first offensive breakthrough of the game for either team came from the Islanders in the top of the third, as after graduate
Austin Russell and senior
Jackson Smith reached with a hit-by-pitch and a single, graduate
Cade Sanchez brought home Russell with a fielder's choice to put the hosts on the board first. Texas Southern would manage to snatch this lead away in the middle innings with a pair of runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, but A&M-Corpus Christi managed to respond right back, getting one back in the bottom sixth on junior
Isaiah Afework's first home run of the season and then knotting things right back up in the seventh when junior
Matt Evans led the inning off with a pinch-hit triple and was cashed in one batter later by senior
Christian Smith-Johnson.
The score would remain tied until the ninth, when the Tigers jumped back out in front on an RBI double with two outs after Afework robbed a go-ahead home run just one batter earlier. This left the Islanders needing to rally with just three outs left to work with, and they started their comeback effort right away, with redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert lacing a single into center field and graduate
Karson Krowka moving over pinch runner
Nic Schwing with a nice sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch would then advance Schwing to third, at which point Evans would come through again with a knock through the right side to tie the game back up at four. Smith-Johnson would then get hit in the next plate appearance to put the winning run in scoring position, and Russell took advantage by dropping a 2-0 pitch onto the grass in right center for the walk-off hit to bring in Evans and send the Islanders dugout racing onto the field in celebration.
"We haven't had to really fight right there until the last second so far, so it was awesome to see our guys do that," Islanders head coach
Scott Malone said. "Evans was the spark. We couldn't get anything going all day, but he got us in the seventh and then again later. And
Austin Russell, I'm not surprised. He, J-Smith,
Cade Sanchez, they're just turning into some old 21- and 22-year old guys at the top of the order that I just write their name up and they show up everyday and get on base and drive guys in."
Game 2: A&M-Corpus Christi 4, Texas Southern 3
Like the first game, the nightcap started to become a back-and-forth affair in the middle innings, with the Tigers getting the scoring started with two runs in the top of the fourth on a home run before the Islanders then answering with a pair of their own right after. This push was set up by a single from Afework and a double off the left field wall by junior
Noah Cassie, which set up Smith-Johnson to bring both in on a double into the gap in left center.
The next inning saw a similar script play out, as Texas Southern retook the lead in the fifth that was then snatched right back by another two spot from A&M-Corpus Christi. After a single by Sanchez to lead off the inning, Afework continued his excellent day by smashing a triple into the right-center gap to tie the game up before then racing home on a passed ball to give the Islanders a 4-3 lead.
From here, the onus fell on the bullpen to hang on the rest of the way, starting with an incredibly gutsy outing from junior
Chase Mayer. The lefty entered the game with a pair of baserunners on in the sixth and one out, and after walking his first hitter to load the bases, he escaped this trouble with a pair of huge strikeouts to keep the Islanders out in front. The very next inning, Mayer ran into another jam with runners at second and third and two outs, but he again managed to get off the hook by inducing a soft groundout to end the threat.
After Mayer's day was over, junior
Chandler Fowler was given the ball to bring the game home, and he also wriggled out of a jam in the eighth, allowing a man to reach third but stranding him there after an eight-pitch battle with two outs led to a big inning-ending punchout. The ninth ended up being less stressful than the three innings before it, as despite surrendering a hit with two outs, Fowler slammed the door shut with another strikeout to earn his first save in an Islanders uniform. In total, the bullpen tossed 4.1 shutout innings on the day, allowing five hits and a pair of walks while punching out nine.
"It was really a team effort," Malone said. "I told the bullpen guys in game one that I thought the effort was great. They got out there with their stuff, but Texas Southern just got after them and scored on them despite that. The guys here late in this one managed to put some zeroes up, and that was the story of the whole game. I thought it was 18 outstanding innings of baseball where both teams played really well."
The Islanders will now try to go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon, returning to action at 1 p.m. with sophomore
Bryson Shea set to take the ball for the start at Chapman Field.
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