NATCHITOCHES – There was no comeback for the Northwestern State baseball team Sunday afternoon in its Southland Conference series finale against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The Islanders took an early lead for the second time in the series and left-hander Zach Garcia made it stand up as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi clinched the series with a 7-2 win at Brown-Stroud Field.
"It started where the first two runs that crossed came off free bases," first-year head coach
Chris Bertrand said. "We had a chance in their three-run (fifth) inning to turn a double play and kill the entire inning and get some momentum and start coming back. When you look at the first six runs, there were a lot of self-inflicted wounds in there."
The pivotal moment came with the Demons (11-22, 4-5) trailing 3-0 and one out in the fifth.
Freshman right-hander
Dylan Marionneaux (2-5) appeared to hold the deficit at three with a potential double-play grounder to third. The relay throw, however, was errant, allowing a run to score.
The Islanders (16-20, 4-5) tacked on two more runs to push their lead to six – a key mark considering each team erased a four-run deficit in each of the first two games of the series. All six of those runs scored with two outs.
Northwestern State began to figure out Garcia (3-0) in the fifth as
Reese Lipoma's RBI single inside the first-base bag put the Demons on the board.
NSU had a chance to further pressure the Islander left-hander in the sixth, loading the bases with one out.
After surrendering an RBI single to
Samuel Stephenson, Garcia recorded a strikeout before pinch hitter
Braden Benton lined out hard to left field to stifle the threat.
Garcia worked six innings, scattering nine hits and two runs. He struck out five while issuing one of the Islanders' two walks.
"It took us a while to solve their starter, but once we did, we did some good things with it," Bertrand said. "I know it's the same old story, but we did something in all three phases of the game that hurt us. On their side of it, they did things in all three phases that gave them the momentum to the point where that's a winning-played game on their end. It's not about pointing out our mistakes, but it's about pointing out where we can learn.
"We can learn from the moments where their defense needed to squelch momentum, they did it. When we had a chance to end an inning on the mound or on defense, we did not, and it allowed them to jump out to that 6-0 lead."
Lipoma, Stephenson and
Hayden Knotts each went 2-for-3 for the Demons, who were outhit 11-9. Isaac Webb (3-for-5) and Logan Vaughan (3-for-5, 4 RBIs) paced the Islanders' 11-hit attack.
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they travel to Monroe to face ULM. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Lou St. Amant Field.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 7, Northwestern State 2
AMCC 102 030 001 – 7 11 1
NCU 000 011 000 – 2 9 2
W – Zach Garcia (3-0). L –
Dylan Marionneaux (2-5). 2B – AMCC, Logan Vaughan, Chance Reisdorph. HR – AMCC, Isaac Webb (2). Highlights: Webb 3-5, HR, RBI; Sebastian Trinidad 2-4; Vaughan 3-5, 2B, 4 RBIs. NSU,
Reese Lipoma 2-3, RBI;
Samuel Stephenson 2-3, RBI;
Hayden Knotts 2-3.
Records: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 16-20, 4-5; Northwestern State 11-22, 4-5.
