NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team was taken down in the second of three weekend games against Northwestern State on Saturday afternoon, getting rolling early but going cold as the game went on and falling by a final score of 10-4.
The beginning of Saturday's contest played out almost exactly the same as the first game of the series the night before, starting with the Islanders (10-9, 0-4 SLC) striking first blood in the top of the first inning on a two-out RBI from senior
Jackson Smith, this one a double right down the line in right field that brought in redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert after he began the rally with a two-bagger of his own. Unfortunately for the visitors, though, the next half inning would also look similar to Friday, as they saw this lead disappear after a four-spot by the Demons (12-7, 5-3 SLC) while also having their starter leave due to injury for the second straight day when junior
Nathan Mueller was struck in the hip by a line drive five batters in.
The first place where the game deviated from the opener came in the top of the second, with A&M-Corpus Christi doing what they couldn't then and putting together a nice response of its own to knot things back up. The team started to threaten in this frame right away when juniors
Max Towchik and
Isaiah Afework led off with a walk and a double, and graduate
Karson Krowka cashed them both in right away, lacing a line drive up the middle that plated the former and brought in the latter after an errant throw home by the Northwestern State first baseman. After advancing to second on the play, Krowka would then go on to steal third base, setting himself up to come home one batter later on an RBI groundout off the bat of graduate
Austin Russell to make it a 4-4 game.
After this outburst, though, the Islanders saw their late-game woes at the plate reappear once again, recording just three singles throughout the remainder of the afternoon. The closest that they came to adding onto their total came in the eighth after Flaggert and Smith stayed hot with back-to-back knocks, but they would be left on base when a double play ended the threat before it could get off the ground. To make matters worse, the Demons continued to run hot with the bats, going back ahead with two in the bottom of the second and then continuing to add on to the deficit until it became too much to come back from.
Individually, Flaggert and Smith recorded the only multi-hit performances for the Islanders on the day, with both going 2-4 with a double and Smith adding on an RBI to go with it. Afework tacked on the other extra-base hit for the team with his double in the second, while Krowka drove in the other run while going 1-3 from the nine hole. On the mound, junior
Nicho Crowley and redshirt junior
Kade Budd did their best to keep the team in it, working 6.1 innings between them after Mueller's early exit and allowing just four runs while punching out six combined Demons hitters.
The Islanders will now try to salvage the three-game road series in the finale on Sunday, sending sophomore
Bryson Shea to the hill for first pitch at 1 p.m.
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