BUCS SWEEP ANGELINA IN A CONFERENCE DOUBLEHEADER

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

Blinn College softball coach Rick Church recently implored his team to ignore its overall record and instead focus on the task at hand. 

The Buccaneers appear to be listening. 

Blinn pushed its season-high winning streak to four games with a 7-3, 11-2 Region XIV South doubleheader sweep of Angelina College on Wednesday at Hohlt Park in Brenham, Texas.

The Buccaneers improved to 9-17 overall, but more importantly, they jumped to 6-4 in the South. They now sit just .025 percentage points behind Angelina for second place in the division and own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Roadrunners. The top four teams in the region's North and South divisions will qualify for the region tournament.

"We've been telling our players that what we do in our region will dictate our season, so it's important to forget what happened in non-region play and to buckle down right now," Church said. "Today was a test for us; we wanted to make sure our sweep over Lamar State-Port Arthur on Monday wasn't just a fluke and that we could build on it. We did some building today."

Blinn was the beneficiary of two solid pitching performances and a game lineup.

In the opener, pitcher Paige Bunting worked around a smattering of Angelina offense to toss a five-hit complete game. The right-hander went the distance for the second time in as many games and picked up her second consecutive victory. She walked one Roadrunner and struck out seven while improving to 4-7 on the year.

"These past two games I've felt pretty good in the circle," Bunting said. "We've been hitting better as a team and I think that's given me the confidence to go out and throw good pitches and the belief that we can bounce back if we have a rough inning here and there."

Blinn's offense proved Bunting right after Angelina erased its 3-1 deficit with two runs off the sophomore in the top of the fourth. Undeterred, the Bucs responded with a three-run fifth and tacked on one more insurance tally in the seventh.

Sophomore Darian DeLeon put Blinn on top for good with an RBI triple and sophomore Bailey Boetjer launched a two-run home run to left field to make it 6-3. 

Freshman Annie Beckendorf hit a solo homer in the sixth.

Boetjer had two hits – both home runs – and finished with five RBIs to lead the Bucs' seven-hit attack.

"I think we're hitting well situationally right now," Boetjer said. "We're putting runners on base and finding the right pitches to hit to get them in."

In game two, a seven-run second frame propelled Blinn to a five-inning run-rule victory for the sweep.

DeLeon gave her team a 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout in the first before the Bucs exploded one inning later.

Sophomore T'Era Garrett hit a two-run single to get things rolling in the second. DeLeon followed with a two-run single of her own, and after Boetjer added an RBI groundout, freshman Cadence Wiese singled in DeLeon and freshman Brynn Gallamore drove in Wiese with a base hit to make it 8-0.

Angelina got two runs back in the fourth.

In the home half of the fourth frame, Beckendorf plated a run on a sacrifice fly, Gallamore drove in a run on a groundout, and freshman Kacie Dudensing scored on an error following a double from freshman Madysen Taylor.

The Bucs finished with 10 hits, including two apiece for freshman Halle Scheel, Wiese, and Garrett. DeLeon had three RBIs while Garrett added a pair.

After Blinn put the run-rule in motion, Gallamore replaced sophomore starting pitcher Bella De Los Santos in the pitcher's circle and induced three groundouts to end the game.

De Los Santos pushed her record to 4-3 following four strong innings of work. She gave up two earned runs on five hits with three walks and a strikeout.

Up next, Blinn takes a short break from region play when it travels to face NJCAA Division II powerhouse Louisiana State University-Eunice. The teams will play two twin bills in two days starting at 2 p.m. on Friday in Eunice, La.