LUBBOCK – In the first game of a two-game set in Lubbock, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team battled tooth-and-nail with the Texas Tech before a four-run frame in the bottom of the seventh inning pushed the Red Raiders to a 6-1 lead on Tuesday night at Dan Law Field.

The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Islanders who swept Nicholls State over the weekend in a Southland Conference series and are now 8-19 on the season. With the win the Red Raiders move to 15-12.

The two teams will meet again on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The game time was moved up an hour from its originally scheduled time of 3 p.m. as the Islanders will fly back after the game.

Leading 2-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Red Raiders scored four runs on three hits and a pair of walks by Trey Hernandez to take a 6-1 lead. Joey Kenworthy drew a walk to lead off the inning and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Willie Rueda. After the Islanders intentionally walked Roger Kieschnick, Monk Kreder singled to drive in Kenworthy.

Hernandez (0-5) pitched 6-1/3 innings scattering six hits. He allowed five earned runs, walked four and struck out three.

Matt Hudec relieved Hernandez and balked to let the second run score. Doug Thennis, who had three runs batted in on the evening and Chris Hall each singled to drive in the final two runs of the inning. Hudec lasted less than an inning before being replaced by Jacob Perez. Perez pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

Thennis pushed the Red Raiders out to an early 2-0 lead with RBIs in the first and third innings.

The Islanders struggled early and didn’t get a runner to second base until the sixth inning. Russ Fornea (3-2) limited the visitors to four hits in 5-2/3 innings while striking out three and walking one.

The Islanders had a couple of missed opportunities in the first five innings. In the first, Hernandez lined a one-out single, but was  thrown out trying to turn it into a double. In the second and fifth innings, Brycen Bell reached with a pair of singles but was erased both times as Justin Greiner hit into a pair of double plays.

A&M-Corpus Christi finally hit pay dirt in the sixth.

In the top of the sixth, Bryan Gerondale led off the inning moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Paul Saville. After Fornea fanned Chase Wheaton for the second out, Trey Hernandez, who singled in the first but was thrown out trying to go for a double, walked. Stephen Flora was hit by a pitch by Fornea, who left the game after the pitch, to load the bases. Jacob Perales earned an RBI the hard way as he was hit by a pitch by reliever Owen Brolsma. The bases remained loaded for Martin Parra, who hit a grounder to third ending the inning.

“Trey gave us a quality start,” said Islander head coach Scott Malone. “Offensively, we just couldn’t get anything going early. We couldn’t string the hits together when we had runners in scoring position. They did and that was the difference in the game.”