LAKE CHARLES – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi belted a season-high five home runs on the day and was able to stay ahead of any McNeese rally as the Islanders halted the Cowboys' nine-game home winning streak with a 13-5 win on Friday in game two of a three-game Southland Conference baseball series.
The teams will play the rubber match on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. An Easter egg hunt for kids will follow after the game.
McNeese dropped to 28-7 overall and 15-5 in league play following the loss while AMCC improved to 14-25 and 6-14.
The Islanders out-hit McNeese 12-11 on the day with five of going for extra bases, all five homers. McNeese hit two home runs and added five doubles for seven extra-base hits.
McNeese second baseman
Connor Schneider was perfect at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a double. First baseman
Marcus Heusohn added a 2-for-4 game that included a double and a triple while shortstop
Easton Dowell hit his 15
th double and sixth home run on the year.
Starting pitcher
Alexis Gravel took the loss and dropped his record to 4-2 on the season after he threw three innings and allowed seven runs, three earned, on five hits.
The Islanders got a solid pitching performance by starter Zach Garcia who picked up the win to even his record to 4-4. He allowed four runs on seven hits, five strikeouts and no walks in seven innings of action.
Corpus took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a Jarrett Flaggert two-run home run.
Dowell cut the lead in half with a solo homer in the second but the Islanders capitalized on a two-out fielding error by the Cowboys in the third that followed with four unearned Islander runs to increase the lead to 6-1.
McNeese scored two runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double by
Grant Mangrum and a sac fly off the bat of
Bryce Fontenot to cut the gap to 6-3.
The Islanders scored another run in the fourth, two in the fifth and then built a 12-3 lead off Jackson Smith's three-run home run in the sixth inning.
McNeese's
Mack Brousseau hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, the sixth on the season, but the Islanders got the run back off a solo homer from Drake Kerr in the eighth. The Cowboys scored another run in the eighth after Heusohn tripled then scored on a
Larry Edwards Jr. single.
Corpus had five players put up two hits each to help guide the offensive attack.