No. 1 Texas baseball survives Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to sweep series

In the most nerve-wracking game so far in the early season for head coach David Pierce and No. 1 ranked Texas baseball, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders nearly ended the undefeated start. Texas had their fair share of issues in every phase of the game at one point or another.

It didn’t look like the Longhorns were able to capture much of their momentum in this series finale against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The gloves were the worst they’ve looked so far this season, coming up with three errors. For good measure, sophomore starting pitcher Lucas Gordon gave up four runs in this game, none of which were earned. Each of Texas’ errors played a role to some degree in helping the Texas pitching staff avoid giving up any earned runs in this game.

But that doesn’t paint the whole picture. The first run of this game was scored by way of a wild pitch for Texas (we’ll get more to that later, though).

Silas Ardoin and No. 1 Texas baseball overcome a strong challenge from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Feb. 23

Gordon and the Longhorns were able to stave off some of the defensive issues throughout this game, though. Texas did get 10 hits on this night, which resulted in five runs. This was the lowest conversion run of runners left on base compared with runs scored of any of the five games so far this season.

That also played a big role in the Islanders keeping this one close with the Longhorns the entire way.

It was actually the Islanders that got on the scoreboard first. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi scored the first run of the game in the second inning on that aforementioned wild pitch from Gordon. Even Gordon struggled to give the Longhorns the edge in this game.

But Texas did come up big with the bats in the following couple of innings to eventually take a three-run lead. Catcher Silas Ardoin was a catalyst to this run in the middle innings from the Longhorns. He came up with three hits, one run scored, and one run batted in, during five at-bats in this win over the Islanders.

Ardoin would also score the game-winning run on a sac-fly from outfielder Skyler Messinger to eventually take the lead for good. Texas would hang on through the final few innings to claim the win by the final score of 5-4.

That would also give Texas the sweep over the Islanders in this closer than anticipated two-game midweek series.

This win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi snapped a streak of three double-digit wins. It was also the first time where the opposition scored at least three runs on this otherwise dominant pitching staff and defense for Pierce and the Longhorns.

Nonetheless, the Longhorns still got some major contributions from one of their more notable players in Ardoin. And Gordon and the pitching staff at least did enough to hang on through some issues in the second and fifth innings.

Following this close one-run win over the Islanders, Texas is now sitting on a spotless record of 5-0 (0-0 Big 12). They’re now set to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide starting on Feb. 25 at home at Disch-Falk Field during a three-game weekend series.