SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team completed the sweep of its weekend series against Incarnate Word in the finale on Sunday afternoon, rallying late for the second day in a row and using a monster day from center fielder
Christian Smith-Johnson to take home the win by a final of 11-4.
The win helped the Islanders (21-22, 10-14 SLC) secure their first sweep during Southland Conference play this season and their third overall, having previously won all four games of their season-opening set against Stonehill on February 13-15 and two in a row over Texas Southern on March 10 and 11. It also helped match their win total from the entire 2025 campaign when they finished with an overall record of 21-31, doing so with eight games still left to go in the regular season.
On another big day offensively for the Islanders, it was Smith-Johnson getting his huge effort going quickly, as with one out and one on in the second, the senior jumped on the first pitch of his first plate appearance of the game and smashed a no-doubter to left for his second home run of the year to get the visitors on the board. In the very next at-bat,
Hunter Azemar would then make it two in a row, crushing a solo shot for his second of the season as well to make it a 3-0 game.
A&M-Corpus Christi would go cold with the bats for a while after this, which allowed the Cardinals (18-23, 8-16 SLC) to climb right back into things with a run in both the third and fourth and then two more in the sixth to take their first lead of the day. This left the Islanders needing to mount a late comeback once again, and they started their own effort in the top of the seventh, beginning with a leadoff single from Smith-Johnson. He would then swipe second for his 16th stolen base of the year and get moved to third on a ground ball, setting up
Austin Russell to bring him home on a ground ball to tie things up at four apiece.
Like on Saturday, the Islanders then made their move with a three spot at the plate, this time coming in the top of the eighth to take the lead and then add on. The first and most important of these runs came off the bat of
Jayden Reynolds, who came up with a runner on second after a leadoff double off the wall in dead center by
Jarrett Flaggert and laced a liner into left for a double of his own to plate Flaggert and give the team a 5-4 lead. In the next at-bat,
Will Stark brought in Reynolds with an RBI single to make it nine in his last four games, and to cap it off, Azemar got back on the board with a run-scoring knock of his own to bring the advantage up to three.
The dagger for A&M-Corpus Christi came in the top of the ninth, when after loading the bases on a single from
Cade Sanchez and back-to-back walks from Reynolds and Stark, Smith-Johnson tattooed a 2-2 pitch to the same spot as earlier for a grand slam that put the score all the way up at 11-4 and gave him two home runs and six RBIs on the day. For his four-year career with the team, Sunday marked Smith-Johnson's first-ever multi-homer performance, and it doubled his previous single-game high for runs batted in of three reached four separate times and most recently more than a year ago on April 4, 2025 against Stephen F. Austin. As for the team as a whole, Smith-Johnson joined Flaggert and
Jackson Smith as the only players to hit two home runs in a game this year, and he became the first member of the program to drive in six runs in a game since his former teammate
Chance Reisdorph did so nearly two years ago to the day against New Orleans on April 27, 2024.
Aside from Smith-Johnson, Azemar had the other big day for the Islanders, going 2-5 with his own homer and a pair of RBIs. Sanchez recorded the only other multi-hit effort with two knocks of his own in his five at-bats, and Reynolds, Stark and Russell tallied the remaining RBIs. On the mound,
Easten Smith came through big for the second day in a row, coming off a save on Saturday and tossing three scoreless innings to earn his team-leading fifth win of the year. Smith entered from the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh with the score all tied up and worked nearly perfectly, allowing a double to the first batter he faced but sitting down nine in a row after that to take the game to the finish line all by himself.
The Islanders will now prepare for a very important week coming up, first traveling to San Marcos for a midweek tilt against Texas State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before returning to Chapman Field for a three-game series against Houston Christian, whom they currently sit in a tie with for the eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference Baseball Championship.
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