Box Score CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – In a game dominated by starting pitching, the Northwestern State baseball team fell victim to ill-timed mistakes.
 
A pair of errors opened the door for a two-run Texas A&M-Corpus Christi fifth inning that gave the Islanders all the offense they needed in a 4-1 Southland Conference win Saturday night at Chapman Field.
 
The two miscues allowed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (22-24, 10-7) to snap a scoreless tie between right-handers Alex Makarewich and Colin Purcell.
 
The pair dueled each put up zeroes through the fourth inning before an infield single and errors on consecutive sacrifice bunts gave the Islander a fifth-inning lead.
 
"(Makarewich) threw the ball great," seventh-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "It took him a minute to find it, but once he did, it was really, really good. The ball was really hopping out of his hand, but we didn't help him. He could have cruised through eight innings and have a shutout going. We screwed it up a little on defense and let them get the lead."
 
The Islanders' rally came after Purcell (4-5) wiggled out of his toughest jam of the night.
 
Cole Horton's one-out double and a pair of two-out walks loaded the bases before Purcell induced a first-pitch pop out of Jeffrey Elkins to keep the game scoreless.
 
The Demons (24-21, 9-8) then compounded Chance Reisdorph's leadoff infield single with errors on consecutive sacrifice bunts by Sebastian Trinidad and Diego Johnson that scored the first run. Brendan Ryan's single through a drawn-in infield doubled the lead before Makarewich (5-4) retired the next two hitters to limit the damage.
 
Makarewich spun his third straight quality start, scattering four hits and two runs (one earned) through six innings while striking out five.
 
Purcell matched him with six shutout innings, allowing three hits after retiring the first 11 Demons he faced.
 
Max Puls' two-run double in the seventh doubled the lead before the Demons broke through against left-hander Zach Garcia in the eighth.
 
Elkins led off with a double and took third on Gabe Colaianni's single. Garcia appeared to maneuver his way out of trouble, retiring the next two hitters on pop flies before Jake Haze singled to left field on an 0-2 pitch to snap the shutout bid.
 
"We didn't do enough offensively," Barbier said. "Early in the game, I thought we hit some balls on the screws and didn't get any grass. Our at-bats were fine early. Their guy pitched well. Then they bring in the left-hander, who had a good change-up. We didn't adjust to it at all. Give him credit, but we have to do a better job of adjusting to it."
 
The series concludes with a 1 p.m. Sunday game. Right-hander Drayton Brown (3-6, 5.81) will start for Northwestern State against Islander left-hander Evans Hendricks (3-0, 3.63).
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4, Northwestern State 1
NSU       000 000 010 – 1 6 2
AMCC   000 020 20x – 4 6 0
W – Colin Purcell (4-5). L – Alex Makarewich (5-4). S – Zach Garcia (1). 2B – NSU, Michael Dattalo, Jake Haze, Cole Horton. AMCC, Max Puls. Highlights: AMCC, Diego Johnson 2-2.
Records: Northwestern State 24-20, 9-8; Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 22-24, 10-7.