CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The HCU Huskies, with a chance to put some distance between themselves and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders as both teams entered the weekend tied for eighth in the Southland Conference standings heading into the day, won twice by final scores of 5-4 and 15-4 as the two teams played a doubleheader at Chapman Field on Saturday.
In game one, the Islanders (22-24, 10-16 SLC) took a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a hit batter and a pair of base hits. Chase Mayer kept the HCU (21-24, 12-14 SLC) offense in check for three innings but in the fourth
Katcher Halligan came up with a clutch two-out single up the middle to score
Jeremy Rader from second and put the Huskies on the board.
Preston Curtis trimmed the HCU deficit in half with a single swing of the bat, blasting a solo home run well over the wall to left field. The Islanders scored an unearned run in the seventh, making it a 4-2 game with just two frames remaining.
Luke Bard led off the eighth with a double followed by a
Levi Castilleja single to put runners on the corners. Halligan then sent the next pitch in the air to the outfield for a sacrifice fly, scoring Bard. In the ninth, trailing by one, Curtis sent his second long ball of the game over the fence to left to even the score at 4-4. The next batter,
Jack Walker, singled to right and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt before moving up to third on a wild pitch. Rader brought Walker home with a fielder's choice ground ball to second for a 5-4 HCU lead.
On the mound,
David Lopez allowed three earned runs in 3.2 innings pitched with four hits allowed, striking out three and walking two.
Brock Lambert earned the win with 4.1 innings of relief work, giving up one unearned run while striking out three, walking two and allowing two hits. Lambert is now 3-0 on the year.
Ben Norton earned his fifth save of the year with a three-up, three-down ninth inning.
In the second game of the doubleheader, HCU took the first inning lead thanks to a solo home run off the bat of Rader for a 1-0 advantage. TAMUCC tied it up in the second, on a fielder's choice and chased opener
Trent Barnes from the game, prompting a move to
Louis Castano on the mound with the bases loaded. The righty reliever ended the inning by inducing a groundout to first.
Rader was hit by a pitch with two outs, stealing second and then scoring one a Bard double down the left field line for a 2-1 lead.
The Huskies blew the game open in the fourth, pouring on 11 runs in the inning. HCU had five hits in the inning, including Walker home run and a three-run double by Curtis. The Huskies also drew four walks in the inning, had a hit batter and an Islander error. Already up by 12 runs, Rader belted his second home run of the game with Halligan on base to put two more runs on the board. The Islanders added two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth for the 15-4 final.
Six pitchers combined to cover the seven innings for the Huskies, scattering eight hits with three of the four TAMUCC runs being earned.
Curtis ended the day with six RBI and three runs scored while going 3-for-8 with a double and two home runs. The senior outfielder now has a team-high seven home runs on the year. Rader went 3-for-7 across the two games, scoring five times and driving in four.
Having secured the series victory, the Huskies will take aim at a sweep on Sunday, May 3, afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
