Box Score ABILENE – Junior center fielder Matt Muñoz ripped two doubles and drove in three runs but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi countered his punch with a two-run sixth and ninth-inning home run by Harrison Dinicola to defeat the Wildcats Thursday night, 7-5, at Crutcher Scott Field in the series opener.
Muñoz' fifth-inning double (14th of the year) plated two runs and gave the Wildcats a 5-4 lead that proved to be short lived as the Islanders began their sixth with three consecutive singles that chased starter
Brock Barger (5.0 IP) from the game. Enrique Sanchez Jr.'s single through the left side tied the score at 5-5 and Dinicola followed with a go-ahead sacrifice fly to right field.
The Islanders were in a position to score a few more runs with runners at the corners and one outs, but the infield caught leadoff man Itchy Burts on an attempted steal of home plate before getting Jackson Owens on a pop up to second base. Reliever
Brennan Lewis continued to shut Corpus Christi down over the seventh and eighth, but Dinicola bested him with a solo shot to deep right field – his eighth of the spring.
Corpus' rally took place with reliever Cody Lecompte (2-2) on the mound. Lecompte replaced the struggling Aaron Hernandez after the Muñoz double and allowed just three baserunners the rest of the way, including a ninth inning double by pinch hitter
Koby Claborn.
ACU started fine vs. Hernandez in coming back from a pair of early deficits. The Wildcats scored two in the second on RBI by Muñoz and
Lane Bourland to take a 2-1 lead, and after going down 4-2 in the fourth, they scored three fifth-inning runs on three hits and a walk.
Derek Scott scored the first run that inning sliding behind the catcher's tag at home plate, while
Dalon Farkas and
Riley Donahue came home on Muñoz' extra-base hit off the left-field wall.
Farkas also saved a run from scoring by throwing catcher Drake Osborn out at home plate on Burts' fourth-inning single through the right side.
The Islanders and Wildcats continue their series Friday at 2 p.m. The game time was moved up due to a chance of rain. Saturday's series finale is slated to start at noon.
