CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team got itself back on track in the first of two midweek contests against Texas Southern on Tuesday evening, holding on down the stretch by tossing eight consecutive scoreless innings on the mound to emerge victorious in a low-scoring affair by a final score of 2-1.
The Islanders (9-7) managed to snap their four-game losing streak with their best pitching performance of the season to date, allowing just a lone run in a game for the first time since the second leg of a doubleheader against Houston Christian back on May 3 of last season. The win improved their record in one-run games in 2026 up to a perfect 3-0, with each such victory coming against the Tigers (5-7) after they took home the first two in both legs of a doubleheader back on February 28.
This strong effort from A&M-Corpus Christi's arms was kicked off by junior
Nicho Crowley, who surrendered the only run of the game in the top of the first inning but limited the damage to just that in his two frames of work. The run that Crowley allowed was immediately gotten back by the Islanders' bats, though, with the hosts responding with one of their own when a single by graduate
Cade Sanchez and an error by TSU's center fielder allowed senior
Christian Smith-Johnson to score from second base.
Redshirt junior
Matthew Molina entered after Crowley in the planned bullpen game and proceeded to walk the tightrope in his 2.2 innings of work, allowing multiple runners to reach base in both the third and the fourth but working out of the former with a double play and the latter with a clutch strikeout. Another double play turned behind Molina in the fifth nullified a leadoff walk right away and ended his day on a high note, with the righty finishing 2.2 scoreless frames in total. Next up after this was senior
Luke Singleton, who recorded the last out of the same frame with a three-pitch strikeout before then stranding a man on second with another punchout in the sixth.
The biggest swing stretch of the game came at this point, starting with the Islanders finally getting their offense going again in the bottom of the sixth to break the 1-1 tie. Redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert got the rally going with a one-out double down the line in left field, and two batters later, junior
Noah Cassie bounced a slow roller to short for a single that ended up plating Flaggert after the throw to first from the Tigers bounced away from the first baseman. This newfound advantage would then come under a huge threat in the top of the seventh when Texas Southern loaded the bases with two outs against Singleton, but the hosts managed to escape once again, this time when junior
Easten Smith entered from the bullpen and got a popout on his very first pitch to head back to the dugout with the lead still intact.
Smith would then head out for the eighth, where he would work out of another sticky situation, putting two more baserunners on but getting out unscathed by inducing a soft liner right to graduate
Karson Krowka that turned into the third double play of the day when the shortstop touched second on his own before the lead runner could get back. For the ninth, A&M-Corpus Christi entrusted junior
Chase Mayer with the opportunity to close things out, and he delivered in much calmer fashion, retiring the side in order on just 14 pitches to lock down his first save as a Division I pitcher.
In total, Islanders pitching stranded 11 Tigers on the basepaths, which came just one shy of their game against Long Beach State on February 21 for their most this year. After the first, the quintet of Crowley, Molina, Singleton, Smith and Mayer combined to shut out Texas Southern over the final eight innings of the game, giving up just five hits in the process while striking out six. In the lineup, Smith-Johnson and Sanchez combined for four of the team's eight knocks on the day, while Flaggert and Krowka tallied the only extra-base hits for either team.
The Islanders will now have a quick turnaround to the second game of their series with Texas Southern, returning back to Chapman Field on Wednesday at 12 p.m. looking to earn the sweep of the Tigers.
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