NO-HITTER LEADS BLINN TO A SWEEP OF JOHN MELVIN

A no-hitter from freshman pitcher Hayden Morris punctuated a dominant day of baseball for the top-ranked Blinn College Buccaneers on Friday at Leroy Dreyer Field in Brenham, Texas.

Blinn swept a doubleheader from John Melvin University 4-1 and 13-0 (five innings) to open a four-game series between the two teams.

Freshman starting pitcher Brok Eddy was also brilliant as he helped the Bucs' to a victory in game one, but the day belonged to Morris.

The hard-throwing right-hander struck out 12 of the 16 hitters he faced and was just one walk away from a perfect game. He improved to 2-0 on the year. 

The no-no was the first of Morris' collegiate career.

"I felt locked in right from the start," said Morris, who fanned the side in the top of the first. "I felt great, and my goal was to throw as many strikes as I could. Plus, it really helps when you have seven guys behind you and a catcher behind the plate who are the best of the best. It really made my job easier."

Sophomore catcher Matt Quintanar caught Morris' gem. Morris said Quintanar will often grasp his catcher's match with four fingers, indicating that "it's time to lock in," but on Friday, no such prompt was needed.

"You never know when a pitcher is going to go out there and throw a no-hitter; something like that doesn't happen very often in college baseball," Bucs head coach Dusty Hart said, "but if there's such a thing as no-hitter stuff, Hayden had it from the get-go. He had the best composure, mentality, and stuff that he's shown so far and it made for a special day."

Offensively, Blinn (8-3) gave its pitcher plenty of support.

The Bucs opened the scoring in the first inning when freshman Trey Craig laced a line-drive double to right field to drive in sophomore Caden Ferraro.

In the second, Blinn tacked on four more runs thanks to a grand slam off the bat of Ferraro.  

Ferraro is off to a torrid start to the season thanks to a .500 batting average (17 of 34) to go with six doubles, a triple, four homers, and 16 RBIs. He has also walked 12 times and sports a robust .612 on-base percentage.

The Bucs piled on six more in the third frame and two in the fourth. 

Blinn finished with six hits, including a pair for Craig and sophomore Ryder McDaniel, and also drew seven walks.

In the opener, Blinn's day of pitching dominance got started with a sparkling effort from Eddy (3-1). 

Eddy struck out seven Millers across 6 1/3 innings while limiting the visitors to just four hits. He walked two.

"Brok really kept them at bay today by throwing strikes and making quality pitches when he needed to," Hart said. "John Melvin threw a left-hander against us in the first inning who was really good, so it was crucial for Brock to go out there and match zeroes with him, and that's what he did."

Blinn scored all four of its runs against John Melvin's Gavin LeBlanc in the third inning, and that's all it would need.

Freshman Drew Britton got the scoring started with a lead-off homer to left field, and after McDaniel walked and stole second, he came home on an RBI single from freshman Benji Berrera. Ferraro then singled, and one out later, Craig lined a two-run double to left field.

"I was proud of our hitters for not getting frustrated early against a good pitcher," Hart said. "Even after we scored four, we still had some tough at outs against (LeBlanc), but we kept stacking good at bats together and that carried over into the rest of the day."

The Bucs totaled five hits, including two for Berrera.

Freshman pitcher Cadyn Shawn entered the game with one out in the seventh and allowed an unearned run, but he got the last two outs of the inning to seal the win.

Blinn and John Melvin conclude their series with a twin bill beginning at 2 p.m. today (Saturday) at Leroy Dreyer Field in Brenham.