LAKE CHARLES, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team rode the power of solo home runs by Stephen Flora, Jacob Perales and Ernie Olivarez and received strong pitching from the trio of Roy Ferdin, Bryant Sparkman and Brett Gibson to knock off McNeese State 3-2 at Cowboy Stadium on Friday night.

The win was the third straight for the Islanders who move to 17-25 and 10-9 on the season. McNeese State drops to 10-32 on the year and is 5-14 in the SLC.

“It was a well played ball game from both sides,” said Islander head coach Scott Malone. “We got 4-1/3 innings of great relief from Bryant and Brent, while Roy gave up just a couple of soft grounders.

“We had heard their starter (Tyler Davis) was very talented and he was. We got just enough offense tonight.”

A&M-Corpus Christi jumped out to a 2-0 lead with solo home runs off Davis in each of the first two innings. Flora belted his fourth home run of the season with one out in the top of the first inning. In the second, Perales led off the inning with a solo home run to center field. It was also his fourth home run of the season.

The game would remain 2-0 until the top of the fifth inning. Ernie Olivarez extended the Islander advantage to 3-0 with a lead-off home run off Davis. It was the first homer of the junior’s career and proved to be the game-winning run.

The Cowboys pulled to within one in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of runs off Ferdin, who had allowed a hit entering the inning. With one away, McNeese posted three straight singles. Sam Merrill drove in Josh Cholley for the first run with the third hit. Herbert Mace scored the second run on a wild pitch by Ferdin, who left the game after getting Taylor Freeman to ground out for the second out.

Ferdin went 4-2/3 scattering four hits and allowing two earned runs. He walked two and struckout three.

Bryant Sparkman relieved the freshman and tossed 3-1/3 innings of one-hit baseball fanning one. He did not allow a walk to move to 2-1 on the season. It was his 21st appearance of the year.

Brett Gibson pitched the ninth for the Islanders allowing a one-out single to Tony Coniglio. He recovered for his fourth save of the season and third in Southland Conference play by getting Channing Kile to ground out and Cholley to fly out to center.

Davis went the distance for McNeese State allowing the three runs on eight hits. He walked one batter and struckout seven. He took the loss to drop to 3-7 on the year.

Bryan Gerondale and Flora each had two hits for the Islanders. Shon Landry had two of the host’s six hits.

The series will conclude on Saturday as the teams have agreed to play a day-night doubleheader due to inclement weather in Sunday’s forecast. The first game will be at 1 p.m. with the finale later that evening at 6 p.m.