| Senior Aaron Powell went 3-for-5 with a first-inning grand slam on Saturday. |
SAN ANTONIO ? Texas A&M Corpus Christi scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings and the Islanders snapped UTSA's winning streak at five games with an 11-10 come-from-behind victory on Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
The Birds, who lost for the first time in 12 games this season when scoring in double figures, dropped to 15-9 overall and 7-4 in Southland Conference play.
Trailing 10-9 entering the seventh, A&M-Corpus Christi (10-18, 2-9 SLC) got a one-out RBI single from Jeramie Marek to tie the contest and Trey Hernandez' sacrifice fly to deep center brought home Stephen Flora with the game-winning run an inning later.
That made a winner of Andrew Toppert (1-3), who kept the Islanders within striking distance with four strong innings out of the bullpen. The right-hander allowed just one run on a pair of hits and struck out five in the 58-pitch outing. Hernandez, who played first base for the first 8.1 innings, struck out the final two hitters of the contest to pick up his second save of the year.
Sophomore Kevin Clarke, who surrendered the eighth-inning run, was tagged with the loss and he dropped to 1-2 on the season.
After UTSA left-handed starter Kris Ruepke surrendered a pair of runs in the opening frame, the Roadrunners got a grand slam from senior Aaron Powell in their half of the first to take a 4-2 lead.
A run-scoring ground out by sophomore catcher Tyler Carpenter extended the advantage to three and senior All-America center fielder Michael Rocket's double to left center two batters later pushed the edge to 6-2.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi responded with seven runs on a half dozen hits and a pair of walks in the top of the third to chase Ruepke from the game, but UTSA responded with a three-spot to tie the tilt at nine in the bottom of the stanza.
Sophomore Ryan Hutson put the Birds in front with his solo shot to right with one down in the fifth before the Islanders began their late-inning heroics.
Powell led the Birds' offensive attack with three hits and four RBIs, while senior shortstop Marshal Davis added two hits and drove in a pair. Rockett went 2-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
Five Islanders had two hits apiece and Hernandez and Jacob Perales both drove home three base runners.
The rubber game of the series is slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday. Freshman right-hander Clay Schrader (2-1, 3.90 ERA) will face southpaw Roy Ferdin (1-3, 5.67).