BEAUMONT, Texas – Picking up where it left off nearly two months ago, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team could not take home the victory on Wednesday afternoon in the resumption of its previously postponed game against Nicholls, going cold offensively and getting taken down by a final score of 6-1.
The game between the Islanders (18-22, 7-14 SLC) and the Colonels (22-19, 14-10 SLC) had originally been played back on March 6, but due to an upheld protest by A&M-Corpus Christi because of a misapplication of the NCAA video review protocol, the original result was nullified and things were restarted from the bottom of the first inning on Wednesday at Vincent-Beck Stadium, the home of conference rival Lamar, with Nicholls leading 1-0. Upon the start of the action, the Islanders came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first, but they were unable to capitalize on this early opportunity, striking out to end the threat without pushing any runs across.
A&M-Corpus Christi would have a couple more scoring chances in the next few innings, first in the second when
Christian Smith-Johnson made his way into scoring position with a walk and a stolen base but got narrowly gunned down at the plate to end the frame following a
Matt Evans infield single. In the third, the team would place a pair of runners on after
Jackson Smith singled and
Will Stark reached on an error, but it failed to walk away with a number on the board again after a ground ball with two outs turned into an 6-4 putout at second. As it turned out, this would be it for a while, with the offense tallying just a lone baserunner in the form of another Smith knock over the next four frames.
Despite the cold stretch with the bats, the Islanders were kept in the game in the early going by their pitching, which came out with three straight zeroes upon toeing the slab for the first time on the day.
Preston Watkins took the ball first in a continuation of his original start in the contest and worked a 1-2-3 second, and after his departure,
Luke Singleton kept the line moving, mowing down the Colonels in order over his two innings of work while picking up four strikeouts. Unfortunately, though, Nicholls found its stride at the plate after this, plating two runs in the fifth and another three in the seventh to build up the lead it had taken back in March all the way up to six runs.
Needing a rally to answer back, A&M-Corpus Christi did finally reawaken in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with just one out following an infield single by
Austin Russell and back-to-back walks from
Hunter Azemar and Stark. The first crack at things fell to
Jarrett Flaggert, who managed to get the team on the board with a sacrifice fly that brought home Russell from third. A bunt single from Smith-Johnson then loaded the bases again with two down, but a strikeout in this spot ended the Islanders' best remaining shot at getting back into the game, as they would then go down in order in the ninth to wrap things up.
On offense, the two multi-hit games went to Russell and Smith, both of whom picked up two knocks apiece out of the second and third spots in the order. Flaggert ended up driving in the team's only run, while Evans, Smith-Johnson and
Cade Sanchez secured the other hits. On the mound, the trio of Singleton,
Matthew Molina and
Kade Budd worked scoreless out of the bullpen, combining to toss four innings while allowing just one hit between them and punching out five.
The Islanders will now get back on the road for their next conference series over the weekend, heading to San Antonio to take on UIW for a three-game set that begins on Friday at 2 p.m.
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