CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Though they may have been more than 1,300 miles from campus, the Northwestern Wildcats baseball team looked right at home in hammering Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 16-5 on Tuesday night at Chapman Field in a game called in the seventh inning because of the mercy rule.
The Wildcats out of the Big Ten – not to be confused with Northwestern State of the Southland Conference – battered six A&M-Corpus Christi pitchers for 14 hits and nine walks in seven innings. The Wildcats (8-9) batted around twice, scored in every inning but one and twice scored five runs in an inning.
"We struggled on the mound for sure," A&M-Corpus Christi coach Scott Malone said. "I spent a lot of time talking about our mentality. I didn't think it was a lack of stuff. I just questioned how tough we were tonight – the ability to stand in the circle and compete with your best stuff in the strike zone.
"I thought our defense was shaky early and that didn't help. We've been really good on defense and we've turned a ton of double plays. There were just some little things like that where we couldn't pick up the tempo that could change the momentum and get us back in it."
Northwestern jumped ahead early with a walk, a double and a two-run single to start the game against A&M-Corpus Christi starter Joshua Flaugher. But much like they've done so far this season, the Islanders (10-14) immediately responded.
With two outs in the bottom of the first, Garrett Gruell doubled, Josh Blount was hit by a pitch, then Sebastian Trinidad walked on 11 pitches to load the bases. That brought the dangerous Chance Reisdorph to the plate, who nearly cleared the wall in center field with a monstrous blast that bounced off the glove of Griffin Arnone. Though he didn't get the grand slam, Reisdorph happily settled for a bases-clearing triple.
On the very next pitch, Christian Smith-Johnson doubled to the gap in left-center, driving in Reisdorph and giving the resurgent Islanders a 4-2 lead.
"I thought the bottom of the first was an outstanding answer," Malone said. "Those big hits from Chance Reisdorph and Christian Smith-Johnson, those are the big hits that turn the game around and give you a chance to win. But we could never slow down Northwestern and let the hitters get going."
Northwestern got all the runs it would need in the second inning, as the Wildcats batted around and scored five runs on just three hits, two walks and an error.
The Wildcats increased that lead in the fourth inning with another five-spot, all of which came with two outs. Northwestern sent 11 batters to the plate, collected four hits, four walks and one hit-by-pitch. A&M-Corpus Christi answered with its final run of the game in the bottom of the inning when Reisdorph singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Logan Vaughan's single up the middle.
Northwestern added another run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one more in the seventh.
Smith-Johnson tried to keep the game alive with a leadoff single in the seventh and moving to third on a pair of wild pitches, but a fly out and two strikeouts ended the game via the run rule.
Reisdorph and Smith-Johnson combined for four of the Islanders' seven hits, while Gruell, Vaughan and Cole Modgling each had one apiece.
The Islanders will look to rebound tomorrow with one more game against Northwestern at 6 p.m. at Chapman Field. The Islanders will hand the ball to Jack Hill, who went four strong innings last week against UH-Victoria. Hill allowed just one hit, no runs and struck out four to get the win as the Islanders won 14-1 in seven innings.
"Jack gave us a spot start last week, and it'll be his turn again tomorrow. Hopefully he'll give us a good two or three innings to open the game and give us a chance to take the lead," Malone said. "We just need to play good baseball."