CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M Corpus Christi baseball team was unable to pick up its first conference win of the season in its doubleheader against Nicholls on Saturday, dropping the first game by a final of 8-3 before then falling in the nightcap 14-5.
The two contests against the Colonels (9-8, 3-2 SLC) went down in the books as the first in Southland play for the Islanders (8-7, 0-2 SLC) after Friday's series opener was slated to be restarted following a protest that was upheld by the conference. The final game of the set is currently planned to be played at a later date still to be determined.
Game 1: Nicholls 8, A&M-Corpus Christi 3
The action on the day started off hot from the very beginning, as both the Islanders and the Colonels managed to jump on the board in the opening frame. After the visitors struck first on a two-out base hit in their first time up, the hosts answered back, starting off their rally when graduate
Austin Russell and senior
Jackson Smith reached via a hit-by-pitch and a walk and then advanced on a wild pitch right after. With two runners in scoring position, graduate
Cade Sanchez got them on the board, lacing a hard liner into right field that did the job of bringing Russell across home plate.
After this, the game continued to go back-and-forth, with the two trading runs throughout the middle innings. A&M-Corpus Christi was first up in this dance, getting back on the board in the third when Sanchez came through once again with a line drive knock into right field to plate Russell from third. Nicholls would answer back in the top of the fifth on a leadoff home run, but the Islanders responded immediately by taking their lead right back in the bottom half of the frame, doing so on an RBI groundout by Russell that brought in senior
Christian Smith-Johnson after he had reached on a hit-by-pitch and then moved to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by the catcher.
This most recent lead change put the Islanders up by a score of 3-2, but the Colonels made sure it didn't last long, putting together the biggest inning for either team in the game with five runs in the top of the sixth to take an advantage that proved to be too much to overcome. Needing to play catchup, A&M-Corpus Christi could not get another rally going, going down in order in the next three frames and then stranding a runner on third in the ninth to bring things to a close.
Game 2: Nicholls 14, A&M-Corpus Christi 5
The nightcap proved to be not as tightly contested as the first game, as the Islanders found themselves behind the eight ball from the start after Nicholls scored four runs across the first two innings and five in the fourth to take firm control of things right out of the gates. The first signs of life from the A&M-Corpus Christi offense came in the bottom of the fifth, when Smith-Johnson made his way to third after a leadoff infield single and then plated the team's first run of the game on a wild pitch with two outs.
This run proved to be a bit of a spark for the Islanders, as they managed to score four more in the very next inning to cut the deficit down to just four. Sanchez, redshirt junior
Jarrett Flaggert and junior
Noah Cassie quickly loaded the bases in the frame with a pair of singles and a walk to lead things off, at which point junior
Max Towchik came off the bench as a pinch hitter and laced a single through the left side to bring in Sanchez from third. Junior
Jack Bergstrom would follow this up with a base hit to drive in a run of his own, and Smith-Johnson and graduate
Karson Krowka kept things moving with a pair of RBI groundouts that brought the score to 9-5.
Unfortunately for A&M-Corpus Christi, Nicholls woke up with the bats once again, scoring five more over the final three innings of the game to put the team back in a large deficit once again. After their outburst in the sixth, the Islanders failed to heat back up, tallying just once more hit by Flaggert the rest of the way and going down without much fanfare.
The Islanders will now try to bounce back in the final two contests of their 13-game homestand during the week, welcoming Texas Southern back to Chapman Field a pair of games starting on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
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