HOUSTON – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team dropped the first contest of their six-game road trip to Rice on Tuesday evening, answering an early scoring outburst with one of its own but failing to sustain down the stretch and falling by a final score of 18-4.
Much like in their most recent series against Stephen F. Austin over the weekend, the Islanders (14-17) found themselves having to play from behind from the outset, surrendering a pair of runs to the Owls (20-14) in both the first and second innings to fall in an early four-run hole. Like in the finale against the Lumberjacks, though, they managed to respond not long after to get right back into things, starting with two of their own in the top of the third to cut their deficit in half.
Max Towchik kicked this rally off with a one-out knock, and after
Jack Bergstrom reached on an error and
Isaiah Afework was hit by a pitch to load the bases,
Cade Sanchez opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly that brought Towchik racing in from third.
Jackson Smith would then keep the line moving in the next plate appearance, roping a liner into right for an RBI single to decrease Rice's lead down to two.
Just an inning later, A&M-Corpus Christi would continue this momentum at the plate, scoring again to make it three unanswered runs in total. This rally would happen all with two outs, starting with a walk by designated hitter
Austin Russell and continuing when
Matt Evans smoked a sinking liner that fell right in front of a diving Trey Duffield in right for a single that brought Russell all the way in from first on a play at the plate.
This good fortune would not last for the Islanders, though, as the Owls heated up in a big way with the bats, answering this last run with three of their own and never looking back from there. In contrast, the visitors could not continue their form at the plate, scoring just once more the rest of the night in the final frame when
Pedro Quero picked up an RBI single for his first hit as an Islander in his first taste of game action this year.
Individually, the hits for the Islanders on the day went to Smith, Evans, Towchik, Quero and
Christian Smith-Johnson, the last of which was their only extra-base hit in the form of a double down the left field line in the final frame. Smith, Evans and Quero also managed to drive in runs along with
Cade Sanchez, who reached base once via a walk while also notching his sac fly in the second.
The Islanders will now have a quick turnaround to their next game, taking part in another road midweek against Prairie View A&M tomorrow at 3 p.m.
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