CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team dominated UTRGV in the final South Texas Showdown matchup of the year, run-ruling the Vaqueros 18-3 at Chapman Field in seven innings.
"Senior
Cassius Shy went out and set the tone, then we came out hitting and creating traffic," said head coach
Scott Malone. "No matter how we hit the ball, it found a hole and the game was going our way. We put runs up early and set the tone. I thought our guys played really well."
Sophomore
Tre Jones started the night off in amazing fashion for the Islanders as he hit a triple in the bottom of the first with a 2-0 lead. The triple marked the 22nd one the team has hit on the season to tie them for the most triples in all of Division I baseball with the likes of Arizona, Grambling State and McNeese. Looking at only one day of rest before a conference series, the team eyes the sole lead this weekend.
Jones was one member of the trio that scored thrice on the night as sophomore
Josh Caraway and junior
Brendan Ryan matched the feat. Ryan managed to do so despite not getting a hit on the night after being walked twice and hit-by-pitch once. He returned to usual form as well, stealing three bases to keep his perfect record of 21 stolen bases on 21 attempts alive. He had accumulated 18 and was in the top five before an injury sidelined him.
Cassius Shy, a senior, made his final start at Chapman Field and pitched 1.2 innings, setting up the Islanders well by putting up the first zero of the night before leaving the game after 1.2 innings of work and two strikeouts. Freshman
Zach Garcia, the regular Saturday night pitcher, came in for relief and kept moving, throwing 1.1 innings, not allowing a single run before senior
Daniel Nelson found his way into the game.
Nelson was the first of four pitchers to each pitch an inning without a run allowed. Senior
Dom Lopez came into the game in the fifth inning and showed off his arm, taking down all three batters he faced in order, earning a strikeout against the season hard-hitting Vaqueros. Sophomore
Kennedy Parks came into the game for the sixth inning on his birthday before junior
Trevor Davis earned his first appearance on the mound this season.
"It was awesome and my arm and teammates were electric," said Davis as his teammates threw a variety of items to hype him up. He remained humble, mentioning it doesn't matter who's on the mound as everyone is supportive of the team and who's pitching.
A&M-Corpus Christi's offense was nearly non-stop the entire night as they posted five runs in the first before backing it up with seven more in the second. The team wasn't satisfied there, however, putting up a total of five more runs in the next couple of innings. the only inning played in which the Islanders didn't score was the fifth, but they put up one more run for insurance in the bottom of the sixth.
The Islanders host Nicholls at Chapman Field this weekend in a three-game series starting Friday at 6:00 p.m. and continuing Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., respectively.
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