Box Score SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team slugged its way to a run-rule victory over Incarnate Word on Friday afternoon, striking early and often at the plate in the series opener to secure the win by a final score of 14-3 in eight innings.
The Islanders (19-22, 8-14 SLC) jumped all over the Cardinals (18-21, 8-14 SLC) with the bats from the first pitch, starting off the day by putting up a three spot in the opening frame to wrestle control of the game to their side right away. This scoring all came with two outs, a rally that was started by a walk from
Cade Sanchez in his return to the lineup after a four-game absence and continued with a base hit from
Jayden Reynolds. Both runners were then cashed in on a double into right center off the bat of
Jarrett Flaggert, which was followed by an RBI knock from
Will Stark to plate Flaggert and make it a 3-0 game.
After a pair of zeroes in the next two innings, A&M-Corpus Christi got revved up again in the middle innings, first with a run in the fourth on an RBI single from
Karson Krowka and then again in the fifth with a whopping six more that helped the team blow things wide open. This outburst started right away, as on the very first pitch of the frame,
Jayden Reynolds ambushed UIW reliever Braelin Pillot and sent a blast over the wall in right field for his second home run of the season.
Reynolds' shot ended up being just the beginning, as the Islanders kept the pressure on immediately after by loading the bases on a single from Flaggert, a hit-by-pitch from Stark and a walk from
Hunter Azemar. They would get back on the board when Flaggert scored on a double play, which was then followed by a run-scoring knock off the bat of
Christian Smith-Johnson. Two batters later,
Austin Russell joined the party with a double to plate two more, and Sanchez capped things off with an RBI single of his own to bring the team's run total into double digits.
A pair of UIW runs in the bottom of the seventh held off the early conclusion, but A&M-Corpus Christi put it back into play in their next time up, plating four in the top of the eighth to increase its lead back above the threshold up to 12. Three of these runs came on a mammoth blast by Stark, who took a 1-0 pitch and belted it over the parking lot in right field for a three-run homer, his first of the year and second in the blue and green. Smith-Johnson would then add on with another RBI knock, putting the Islanders at 14 runs on the day giving them more than enough of a cushion to secure the run rule in the bottom of the frame.
Not to be overshadowed, the Islanders also got another excellent outing from
Chase Mayer on the mound, who continued his recent great stretch since being moved from the bullpen into the Friday spot of the rotation. The lefty earned his third win of the year and recorded his second quality start in his last three appearances, tossing six innings while allowing just one earned run on five hits and punching out four hitters. Mayer dominated the middle frames of the game, allowing just four total baserunners between the second and sixth innings while not seeing any of them advance past second base. He also very nearly took the game to the end himself, flirting with a complete game shutout before making his exit after two batters in the seventh.
Out of many strong days in the lineup, the best one belonged to Reynolds, who picked up his third different four-hit game of the year by going 4-5 with the home run and three runs scored. Stark wasn't far behind, going 2-4 with his longball and four RBI, making it back-to-back games reaching that threshold after not having any in his first 14 games of the year. These two were joined with multiple hits by Krowka, Flaggert, Smith-Johnson and
Jackson Smith, while Russell and Flaggert joined Stark with multiple runs batted in.
The Islanders will now try to continue this momentum in the second game of the set on Saturday, returning to Sullivan Field for first pitch at the same time of 2 p.m.
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