NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team came up short in its return to the road on Friday evening, engaging in a pitcher's duel with Northwestern State but ultimately getting taken down by a final score of 5-1.
Hitting first in a game for the first time in nearly a month, the Islanders (10-8, 0-3 SLC) got their bats going quickly, putting together a rally in the opening frame to take a quick 1-0 lead. Graduate
Cade Sanchez started this off with his team-leading 27
th hit of the season, and after stealing second with two outs, senior
Jackson Smith cashed him in with a well-struck line drive that dropped into center and drove home the first run of the game for either team. This advantage didn't last, however, as in the bottom half of the first, the Demons (11-7, 4-3 SLC) responded with two of their own on a single and an error on the same play that snatched the lead right back the other way.
From here, the pitching staffs for both teams put in some very nice work, with the lone run on either side for the next six innings coming on a Northwestern State leadoff home run in the bottom of the fourth. For A&M-Corpus Christi, the bulk of this work was done by junior
Easten Smith, who came in out of the bullpen on short notice after an injury to starter
Preston Watkins and proceeded to toss five innings of one-run ball while walking just one and matching the single-game high for any Islander this year with seven strikeouts. This continued Smith's excellent start to the 2026 season, as he now holds a miniscule 0.64 ERA with 14 punchouts through his first 14 innings of the year.
While this strong effort from Smith kept the Islanders in the game, their bats unfortunately went cold late, as after recording another pair of hits in the second inning, they tallied just one more over the final seven while getting a runner in scoring position just once over that span. The knockout blow came in the form of a two-run home run from the Demons in the eighth, which helped send the visitors to the series-opening loss.
The best day for A&M-Corpus Christi at the plate came from junior
Hunter Azemar, who notched the only multi-hit game for the team by going 2-3 out of the seventh spot in the order. Sanchez and Smith also reached base twice via a hit and a walk each, while the last remaining knock went to graduate
Karson Krowka.
The Islanders will now try to heat back up on offense in the second game of the series on Saturday, returning back to Brown-Stroud Field at 2 p.m. with junior
Nathan Mueller set to take the ball for the start.
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