CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team secured a very important win in its home finale against HCU on Sunday afternoon, celebrating Senior Day by putting together a very nice showing on the mound and getting some timely hits to earn the tight victory by the final of 3-2.
With the win, the Islanders (23-24, 11-16 SLC) kept their postseason hopes in striking distance, getting back to within a game of the Huskies (21-25, 12-15 SLC) for the eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference Baseball Championship with three conference games left to go. They also pulled themselves two games behind both SFA and McNeese for the sixth and seventh spot in the standings, with the team holding the tiebreaker over the latter thanks to its series victory over the Cowboys two weeks ago.
The finale at Chapman Field on Sunday started with a pregame ceremony honoring 12 seniors on A&M-Corpus Christi's roster, including members of the starting lineup in
Karson Krowka,
Jackson Smith,
Cade Sanchez,
Will Stark,
Christian Smith-Johnson and
Austin Russell. Once the action finally kicked off, the Islanders were able to strike first blood in the second inning, getting a rally started when Stark tagged the first pitch he saw into the gap in left center for a double and then alertly darted for third with HCU tried to appeal at first before time had officially been called. Now just 90 feet away, he would come home one batter later, scoring the first run of the day on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Jarrett Flaggert.
After an HCU run in the third to tie things back up, the Islanders swiftly punched back to get their advantage back, getting back on the board in both the fourth and the fifth to go back up by a mark of 3-1. The first of these came with quickly in that frame, as after a leadoff single from Krowka and a seven-pitch walk from Smith, Sanchez stepped up and poked a soft liner into shallow right with two strikes to bring Krowka racing home from second. They would then strike again one frame later, with Russell sending a blast out to left field with two outs that cleared the wall for a solo homer that gave them a crucial insurance run. This was Russell's first longball of the season and just his second overall in the blue and green, with his only other one coming all the way back on February 23, 2025 against Washington State in that year's Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field.
"He'll be the first to tell you that the season hasn't gone the way he wanted," Islanders head coach
Scott Malone said about Russell. "I was debating whether it was gonna be him or maybe a left-handed bat in there today, but I said, 'I'm playing that senior and going down with these old guys,' and he really stepped up and had a big at-bat for us. I was excited to see him get that big swing off. In a perfect world where you script this thing, all the seniors would've had one big out or one big swing, and he had his today."
Even with the low scoring output on offense, A&M-Corpus Christi was kept in front thanks to a very strong effort from starter
Preston Watkins, who was handed the ball for his first start since exiting early from his outing against Northwestern State on March 13 and missing nearly a month before returning to action in the bullpen for his last three appearances. Even with the abbreviated role over the last three weeks, Watkins still managed to match the longest start for an Islanders pitcher this season on Sunday, working seven complete innings on 100 pitches, 61 of which being strikes in what was an efficient day filling up the zone. The righty ran into his only trouble in the third inning but kept the Huskies off the board entirely after that, finishing his day with a punchout of the last batter that he faced to cap off his line at just one earned run allowed on six hits while striking out four and walking no one.
"He's been banged up all year and pushing through some stuff, so he wasn't for sure probably until Friday night when I asked him if he could give us a good three- or four-inning start and set the tone," Malone said about Watkins. "He said 'Coach, I got you,' and then we couldn't get him out of the game. It thought today was a character day for him. It wasn't electric stuff that you see in the line, but I thought it was just guts and throwing strikes and challenging a good hitting team. He kept getting after those guys."
After Watkins's departure, HCU was finally able to get going on offense again, getting back on the board to cut the Islanders' lead to one while threatening for more with the bases loaded and two outs. At this point,
Easten Smith was summoned out of the bullpen to pull off the tightrope act, and he managed to escape the jam unharmed with a little help from his defense, getting a soft pop up into shallow center field that Sanchez managed to just narrowly get a glove on to record the third out with the hosts still out in front. Smith then went back out for the ninth and put together a much less stressful frame, retiring the Huskies in order to lock down the massive win and secure his second save of the year.
"He's been our guy," Malone said about Smith. "We had to go to him one inning before I wanted to, but he came in and got after those guys and threw strikes. He really went right after them in the ninth and set the tone, and we just played defense behind him. It was a really good day."
A&M-Corpus Christi ended up getting outhit by the Huskies on the day 8-6, but it made up for this with a pair of extra-base hits that proved to be crucial in Russell's home run and Stark's rally-starting double. Every hit for the team on the day fittingly went to seniors in their last home game, with Krowka notching the lone multi-hit effort and the other knocks outside of those three going to Sanchez and Smith-Johnson.
The Islanders will now head out on the road for their final four games of the regular season this week, first playing their last nonconference tilt against Houston on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before closing things out in a crucial three-game set at New Orleans that starts on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
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