SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Freshman
Bernie Martinez (Laredo/United HS) collected his first win of the season and gave the University of the Incarnate Word baseball team its first back-to-back wins of the season by defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 5-4 on Wednesday night in a non-conference game at Sullivan Field.
Martinez went 5.1 innings and only allowed two earned runs (two unearned) and no walks while striking out four. It was a sloppy game for both defenses as they combined for six errors, leading to five unearned runs overall.
The Cardinals (10-24) took advantage of those errors in the victory. First, UIW scored in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by
Robert Lopez (San Antonio/Brennan HS) for an early 1-0 lead. Then in the third and fourth innings, the Cardinals scored two runs each.
After giving up two runs in the top of the third, the home team started a rally in the bottom of the inning with an error by the third baseman and then a throwing error by the shortstop. After a
Cory Duran (Lewisville/Lewisville HS) walk to load the bases,
Weston Pitts (Highland Village/Flower Mound Marcus HS) came up with a big two-run single to center field to regain the lead 3-2. Then in the fourth inning, Lopez scored after a failed pickoff got away from the pitcher and
Austin Hoffman (Goodyear, AZ/Millenium HS) later drove in
Ryan Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) on a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Islanders (11-21) threatened with two runs in the top of the sixth, but the Cardinal bullpen came in to shut the door.
Trevor Hardee (Alvord/Alvord HS),
Tyler Lesley (San Antonio/Brandeis HS) and
Lance Moszkowicz (Spring/Klein Collins HS) combined to pitch 3.2 scoreless innings. Moszkowicz picked up his fifth save of the season while Martinez earned the win.
The Islanders used five pitchers in the loss with David Worrell getting hit with the loss. Austin Cornish was able to keep the Cardinals under control for 3.1 scoreless innings.
Ryan Gonzalez led the Cardinals with two hits while also scoring a run. Pitts collected two RBI's and Lopez finished the game 1-for-2 with a run scored and another driven in.
Tanner Wall (San Antonio/Johnson HS) collected a hit and scored twice, while Hoffman drove in a run and scored another.
The two teams will meet again later in the season in a three game conference series, but this was a non-conference game and it will not affect their conference records. The Cardinals next game is Friday at 6:30 p.m. when they start a Southland Conference series at home against Sam Houston State.
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