Buccaneers open Temple College Tournament with two wins

Blinn College beats Labette and Indian Hills by a combined 15-4

TEMPLE, Texas – Blinn College softball opened up the Temple College Tournament Feb. 20 with a 7-1 victory over Labette Community College and an 8-3 win over Indian Hills Community College in Temple.

“When you score that many runs then you should have a pretty good chance to win,” said Blinn head coach Rick Church. “Both pitchers did a good job for us today Jaiden did well and Mariah struck out 14 the first game and 10 the second.”

After securing two straight victories to open the tournament, the Buccaneers fell in the third game 2-1 to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College to finish the day 2-1 and improve the overall record to 12-8.

Blinn used the long ball and a strong pitching performance from Mariah Gibson to open the tournament with an impressive victory. Gibson pitched all seven innings and allowed one unearned while striking out 14.

Jordin Wilkins blasted two home runs in the victory over Labette while Delilah Pacheco, Gibson and Courtney White each hit a home run to help in the victory.

The game couldn’t have started any better for the Buccaneers as Pacheco hit a solo home run to begin the game. The inning didn’t end there as Wilkins followed with a single and Jaiden Rawls was hit by a pitch then White was able to blast the second home run of the inning to give Blinn a 4-0 lead.

Another home run was used in the fifth inning to build a 5-0 lead on Labette as Wilkins hit one over the wall in center. Labette would score a single unearned run in the fifth but that would be the final scoring from them and then the Buccaneers added more runs in the sixth.

Wilkins and Gibson hit back-to-back solo shots for a 7-1 lead, which turned out to be the final score.

Another fast start helped Blinn in the second game of the day against Indian Hills as the Buccaneers scored four runs in the first. Meghann Wrinkle knocked in three runs while Avery Mullendore brought in a pair during the win. Rawls pitched all seven innings to pick up the win and none of the three runs scored by Indian Hills were earned.

Pacheco singled to begin the second game and later came around to score on an RBI single to left by Wilkins for the first run. Wrinkle brought in a run with a ground out and then Mullendore ripped a two-run double to give Blinn a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Buccaneers built upon their lead in the third inning when Rawls was hit by a pitch and Seeley Orsak came in to run for Rawls and later scored on an Indian Hills error for a 5-0 lead. Blinn added some insurance runs in the sixth when Pacheco singled to begin the inning and later scored on another error.

Wrinkle followed later in the inning with an RBI single to left to score Alli Spivey and White later scored to give Blinn a commanding 8-0 lead. Indian Hills put up three runs in the sixth but couldn’t get any closer as Blinn won its fifth game in a row.

Offense was a little harder to come by in the loss against Northeastern Oklahoma in a 2-1 final score. Blinn only picked up four singles in the loss while Gibson was pitching a solid game in the circle with 10 strikeouts in six innings.

Northeastern Oklahoma picked up its two runs in the second inning and from then on Blinn was playing catch up. Trailing by two in the fifth, Orsak got a little offense going with a one-out single and then was able to score after a single by Pacheco to cut the lead in half but that would be the final run scored as Northeastern Oklahoma held on for the victory.

Blinn will continue in the Temple College Tournament Feb. 21 with a game against Butler Community College at 11:30 a.m.

Story Courtesy of:

Jake Gordon
Blinn Communications & Sports Information Specialist