The Islanders started the 2015 campaign with a bang!
We swept St. Peters University in our opening weekend series at home. The team looked salty, as timely hitting and solid pitching performances were on display in all three games. Offensively, the Ders were led by junior third baseman Cody Clarke, who finished the weekend with an impressive 7-for-10 performance at the plate. In addition to Clarke, junior transfer and Corpus Christi native Justin Perales delivered clutch RBI after RBI, including a triple, to the delight of the hometown fans and family that came to see him in his first performance as an Islander. Redshirt freshman Travis Geiser also tripled in his first-ever collegiate at-bat, giving the Ders the lead late in game one of the series.
Opening weekend was also good for the Ders pitching staff, as our three returning starters all had an opportunity to get their feet wet and work out the rust from the winter break. Matt Danton, Trevor Belichek and Devin Skapura all struggled just a little in the first inning or two, but found the strike zone, settled in and kept the St. Peters hitters at bay throughout the remainder of their outings. As a whole, the opening series for the Islanders was a resounding success, and the team exhibited a “never say die”, tough mentality. The players and the coaching staff were pleased with opening weekend, but the celebration didn’t last long as the Islanders went back to work preparing for a huge test and what could possibly be a benchmark for the 2015 season; the Kleberg Classic Tournament.
The Kleberg Classic is a yearly collegiate tournament hosted by the Islanders and the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Houston Astros AA affiliate. This year’s field included the Islanders, the Missouri Tigers of the SEC, The Purdue Boilermakers of the Big 10, and coming off an NCAA Super-Regional appearance last season, Southland conference foe Sam Houston State. With the quality of this year’s field, a good showing from the Ders would raise some eyebrows and put us on the road to a successful season.
We led off the tournament against Missouri on Thursday night, and the Ders knocked off the Tigers in a 3-2 victory. Missouri’s pitching stymied the top of our batting order, but our 8 and 9-hole hitters delivered clutch at-bats in key situations. The 1-2 punch of sophomores Brett Burner and Lukas Hermanson produced 2 RBI that put the Ders in the driver’s seat. Even as impressive as the offense was, the real story of the game was the performance of junior RHP Garrett Harris. In his first start on the bump as an Islander, Harris went seven innings, baffling the SEC hitters and giving up only two runs in a captivating clinic of grit. The ball was passed to senior RHP Kevin Landgrebe in the 8th inning, and Landgrebe suffocated the Tigers batters. I came for the ninth inning and collected my third save of the year. The game against Missouri went exactly how Coach Malone drew it up. We created our own opportunities, capitalized on their mistakes, kept their hitters off the base paths and didn’t let them get up once we got them down.
Friday’s matchup was with the Purdue Boilermakers of the Big 10 Conference. Again, the Islanders came out with something to prove and defeated the Boilermakers 6-2. The pitching of senior starter Matt Danton was stellar, and proved to be another example of the brand of baseball that this team is capable of playing. The Islanders offense produced ten hits on the day, including a four-run fifth inning. Barring a little 2-run bump in the road during the 8th inning, we would have shut Purdue out.
The win over Purdue was our fifth straight of the season and the Ders were firing on all cylinders. The one through nine hitters in our batting order were contributing, our starting pitching was more than solid, and the bullpen was slamming the door. These first five victories were an excellent start and gave us a sneak peek at what we are capable of achieving. The Ders bats were alive, we have a pair of dual vacuum cleaners up the middle in shortstop Casey Thomas and second baseman Brett Burner, our pitching staff was shut-down and the Ders were playing some great baseball. I couldn’t have been more proud of how this team was performing. At least that’s what I thought at the time… Believe it or not, I became more proud of this team by the way we played in our next two games of the tournament, both of which we lost.
Saturday and Sunday proved to be less advantageous as far as the win column goes for the Islanders. The Mizzou Pitching staff caused the Islander bats to go cold in a 5-1 loss to the Tigers on Saturday. Sunday brought a match-up with conference rival Sam Houston State and the Bearkats came out swinging taking the Ders down by the score of 9-5. Despite dropping both games over the weekend, I honestly don’t feel that these two losses were black marks on our record. We may have gained more from these two losses that we did in all of the previous five victories combined.
As I sat in the dugout on Sunday during the 9th inning, praying and yelling for a late inning comeback, I peered down the rail and saw a sign of promise that filled me with Islander pride. Down by 4 runs with the end of the game nearing and the likelihood of a Ders comeback victory fading, I saw something that changed my whole perspective of that game. Leaning over the rail at the far end of the dugout I spotted freshman pitcher Carter Lilly and freshman catcher Austin Cornish. Both of these two young players are fighting for playing time and neither has made an appearance in a game yet, but they were both completely locked in and were cheering for senior Frankie Salas to squeeze out one more hit and ignite a rally. As I watched these two, I began to notice that they weren’t the only ones living and dying with every pitch; all of the freshmen were. In fact, the entire team was. I expected that level of passion and commitment from upperclassmen; guys that have been here and poured their hearts and souls into this program, but seeing it from players who have yet to even get their jerseys dirty made me as proud of this team as I would have been in a blow-out win. We were ALL knee-deep in the fight with our brothers… Together… We believe in each other.
I’ve experienced a lot of wins and a lot of personal success in my collegiate career, but I’ve never been more proud to be an Islander than I was at that moment. The Ders are going to achieve great things this season, not a doubt in my mind!
