CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team earned another hard-fought victory in its game on Wednesday afternoon, falling in a hole early but coming back late to down Texas Southern by a final score of 5-4 and secure a sweep of its quick midweek series.
The win was the fourth of the season for the Islanders (10-7) over the Tigers (5-8), with the first two coming when they also won the previous series between the teams two weekends ago. Interestingly, every one of these victories came by a margin of just one run, which are the only such games that A&M-Corpus Christi has played in so far this year.
Before starting their comeback effort toward the narrow triumph, the Islanders first found themselves trailing early on, surrendering a run in the opening frame for the second day in a row and then another pair two innings later to fall behind 3-0. After failing to score despite putting two runners on in their first time up and loading the bases in the third, they finally broke through for the first time in the fourth, responding with two runs of their own on one big swing from junior
Max Towchik. The designated hitter came up with a runner on first following a walk by junior
Jayden Reynolds and hammered a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left field for his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to bring the hosts back to within one.
A&M-Corpus Christi's pitching did manage to settle down a little bit after the hot start from Texas Southern, tossing a pair of scoreless frames before the Tigers got back on the board with a run in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the same inning, however, the Islanders managed to get this score right back, putting together a two-out rally of their own to cut their deficit back to one. Junior
Hunter Azemar kicked things off with a pinch-hit double, and after the inning was extended after a throwing error on a ground ball off the bat of junior
Christian Smith-Johnson, graduate
Cade Sanchez took advantage with a base hit right over the second base bag to bring Azemar jogging in from third.
This run managed to provide the spark for the Islanders, as they came back in the very next frame and started to get the line moving once again with two outs. Graduate
Karson Krowka and Reynolds first got traffic back on the basepaths after a double play nullified the team's first hit of the inning, and after an excellent nine-pitch battle, Towchik came through once again with a line drive single into left that brought Krowka home from second. This forced a pitching change from TSU, and in the very next plate appearance, Azemar welcomed the new reliever with a bloop base hit into center that fell right in front a pair of Tigers outfielders and gave A&M-Corpus Christi its first lead of the day.
Now tasked with holding this advantage over the final stretch of the ballgame, the Islanders first turned to redshirt sophomore
Luke Robertson in the eighth, who recorded two outs while seeing a batter advance to third on a hit-by-pitch, a stolen base and a groundout. Junior
Chandler Fowler was then summoned to close things out, which he managed to do after stranding this runner to end the frame and then going back out for the ninth and slamming the door despite a pair of hits that put the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. This secured Fowler's second save of the season, which gives him the most on the team through the first 17 games.
The big contributor in the lineup for the Islanders was Towchik, who got his first start since February 24 and responded by going 2-4 with the home run and three of the team's five RBIs. Also joining Towchik with multiple hits were Azemar and redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert, with the former doing so in just two at-bats after pinch hitting and the latter in his four out of the third spot in the lineup. On the mound, junior
Pierre-Luc Jacques earned the win after tossing 1.2 scoreless innings in relief with three strikeouts, while redshirt junior
Kade Budd had his best game of the year with two perfect frames of his own.
The Islanders will now finally hit the road for the first time in nearly a month, rolling along with conference play over the weekend with a three-game series against Northwestern State in Natchitoches that kicks off on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
#ShakasUp
