STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton badly needed to get in the win column, and they did just that as they edged the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 9-8 to snap an eight-game losing streak on Wednesday night at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
After Tarleton (4-12, 0-3 WAC) allowed three runs from the Islanders (10-9, 0-0 SLC) in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game at eight, the Texans knew what they needed to do in the bottom half.
Spencer Bloom drew a walk to lead the Texans off, and Rhett Gallagher pinch ran for him. After a sacrifice bunt by Colby Seltzer advanced Gallagher to second base, Jaime Perez stepped to the plate already with a hit and RBI in the game.
Facing a 1-2 count, Perez smacked a ball up the middle of the Islander defense and Gallagher came racing around third and slid safely into home to secure the win for Tarleton in walk-off fashion as the lights flashed at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
Bryce Hackett (1-3) earned the win for Tarleton pitching two shutout innings in the second and third.
Tarleton looked to be off to another bad start as the Islanders plated four runs to begin the game, knocking Texan starter Landon Cody out of the game. The Texan bats picked up the slack in the bottom half though, as London Green singled on a bunt and advanced to third on a throwing error, with Alec Williams and Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo scoring in the process to make it 4-2.
A Carter Dobrinski RBI single, one of his three hits on the night, to left field scored Green. Bloom went on to single to left field to push Dobrinski to second base where Perez knocked him in to tie the game at four, essentially pushing reset on the game.
Tarleton went on to score four more runs in the third inning to extend their lead. Dobrinski tripled and Bloom hit him in with a single to third base. A throwing error from the Islanders helped get Bloom home, and Williams hit a two RBI single to center to make it an 8-4 game to cap the inning off.
TAMUCC scored a lone run in the top of the fourth, but Tarleton held the 8-5 advantage for four more innings, until the ninth.
Riley Boyd, Zane Badmaev, Jake Burcham and Zach Gagnon all combined to hold the Islanders scoreless, each pitching a single inning.
Perez, Bloom, Dobrinski, Green and Williams all finished with multi-hit games for Tarleton, who ended the night with 12 total hits.
Tarleton returns to the Tarleton Baseball Complex this Friday, March 18, at 6 p.m. CT to kick off their second WAC series of the season.
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