Despite coming away with an 11-11 tie in the series finale with Central Arkansas, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team clinched a spot in the Southland Conference tournament for the first time in history Sunday afternoon at Chapman Field.

With the tie, the Islanders moved to 22-28-1 overall and 14-12-1 in the league. UCA is now 24-25-1 overall with a 11-15-1 mark in the league. Despite SFA downing UT-Arlington on Sunday 9-1, A&M-Corpus Christi has clinched a spot in the postseason as the Islanders can no longer finish below the Lumberjacks, who are currently ninth in the league. The worst A&M-Corpus Christi can finish in the conference is 14-15-1, while SFA would have to win three straight to get to 14-15. With the sweep of the Lumberjacks in Nacogdoches, TAMUCC holds the tiebreaker.

A&M-Corpus Christi appeared on the way to clinch the spot on Sunday without any help jumping out to a 10-2 lead after four innings in the series finale. However, the game ended in bizarre fashion with the game tied at 11 after nine innings. Due to time restrictions placed on the game due to the travel plans of the visiting Bears, no inning was allowed to start after 3 p.m. to allow the visitors time to catch their flight.

With the 3 p.m. approaching, the Islanders entered the top of the ninth leading 10-9. Reliever Bryant Sparkman appeared on the verge of his second save striking out Derrick Corso for the first out. Martin Parra made a nice diving grab of a grounder by Chris Houk at third and threw him out at first for the second out.

Things quickly changed as Richey Irvin came off the bench to the game for the Islanders with a solo home to left-center field. Scott Cline followed with a double to right and came across for the go-ahead run on Graham Martin’s double down the line in right.

Sparkman pitched 1-1/3 innings allowing two runs on three hits and fanned 14 as the Islanders finished with 14 strikeouts in the game.

The Islanders rallied in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Chase Wheaton walked and went to third on a single by Bryan Gerondale, who went to second on a throw to third. Trey Hernandez loaded the bases by reaching on an intentional walk from Matt Whitaker with one out.

Ernie Olivarez tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left field for the second out. Paul Saville tried to keep things going as he reached on infield single, but Martin Parra fouled out to third to end the game.

“The ninth inning was set up to be a good story with the seniors coming to the plate with the game on the line,” said Islander head coach Scott Malone. “It was just too good of a story that on senior day they would have a chance to win it. We just didn’t finish it off.

“I was proud that we didn’t quit and battled back to get a tie. The tie leaves a bad test in my mouth, the players’ mouths, and the fans’ mouths. When you get 11 runs off 15 hits that should be enough to win.”

A&M-Corpus Christi wasted little getting on the board with seven runs off Daniel Price in the first 2-2/3 innings.

Stephen Flora led the inning off with a single, stole second, went to third on a base hit by Williams and scored on a fielder’s choice by Wheaton.  A double by Gerondale drove In Wheaton, while Gerondale crossed the plate on a single by Trey Hernandez.

UCA scored single runs in the second and third to pull within 3-2. Houk belted a solo home run in the second off Islander starter Justin Grota. In the third, Josh Huffman doubled down the line in right and scored on a double down the left-field line.

A&M-Corpus Christi used a pair of errors in the third inning to cross the plate with four unearned runs. Flora doubled to start the inning and, after going to third on a throwing error scored, crossed the plate on a grounder by Gerondale. Hernandez doubled down the line in left to bring in Wheaton. He scored as Ernie Olivarez lined a triple to right-center field. Olivarez scored as the relay throw got loose in the infield.

With one out in the fourth, Williams appeared to seal the win with a three-run home run to left field off reliever Matt Whitaker. Parra and Adrian Salinas each scored on the blast which was the fifth of the season for Williams and the 11th of his career.

Whitaker would hold the Islanders at bay. The UCA reliever would allow on hit the next four innings until the ninth. He struck out eight batters and walked after replacing Price.

After scoring twice in the fifth, UCA tallied five runs in the sixth inning. Scott Cline began the scoring with a solo home run with one out. The final four runs came with two out. Bobby Pritchett singled and scored on a triple by Kevin Rawls to send Grota from the game. After Jesse Maldonado hit the one pitcher he faced, Eric Tennyson, who had an RBI double in the fifth, roped his second double to drive in Rawls. Corso capped the scoring with a two-run single.

Grota left the game after 5-2/3 innings. He allowed seven runs on 11 hits as the wind wreaked havoc at Chapman Field as it blew out to left. Grota struck out a career-high seven batters in the game without a walk. After Maldonado, Hernandez pitched two innings of three-hit baseball striking out four and walking one. He allowed one run.

“Justin pitched well,” said Malone. “With the wind , the field played a lot smaller, but he gave us a quality start. We played some shaky defense behind him early and he was able to get out of some tough spots. He gave us every chance to win.”

The Islanders finished the game with 15 hits. Flora, who finished 11-of-14 in the series with six doubles and seven runs scored, and Hernandez each had three hits. Williams, Gerondale and Parra had two hits apiece. Rawls and Cline each had three hits for the visitors who had 16 hits in the game.

The Islanders are off until visiting UT Arlington in the final series of the Southland Conference regular season beginning Thursday.