BLINN SPLITS SATURDAY DOUBLEHEADER WITH LSU-EUNICE

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The Blinn College softball team earned a hard-fought split of a non-region doubleheader at Louisiana State University-Eunice on Saturday in Eunice, La.

The Buccaneers claimed the opener 4-2 before the Bengals rallied in the latter innings of game two for a 4-3 victory.

Blinn moved to 10-20 overall.

"We had a good start to the day with a win," Bucs head coach Rick Church said. "We had two well-pitched games from Paige (Bunting) and Brynn (Gallamore), but we didn't make some routine plays in the second and it cost us."

In game one, Blinn rallied out of an early one-run deficit when freshman Navaeh Holmes doubled to left field to drive in fellow freshmen Kacie Dudensing and Madysen Taylor for a 2-1 edge.

The Bengals tied the game in the fourth, but the Bucs broke up the stalemate with a two-run seventh. Freshman Cadence Wiese drove in Holmes with a sacrifice fly and freshman Annie Beckendorf plated freshman Halle Scheele with a single to left field.

Blinn finished with six hits, including two for Scheel.

Gallamore capped a complete-game outing in the seventh when she got the first out on a grounder, walked the next hitter she faced, and proceeded to induce a game-ending ground-ball double play.

Gallamore improved to 2-5 on the year after allowing an earned run on six hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts.

Blinn was on the cusp of a sweep in game two, but LSU-Eunice rallied out of a 3-2 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Blinn had seven hits, with Dudensing and Taylor collecting two apiece. Taylor had two RBIs and Dudensing finished with one. 

Sophomore Paige Bunting was the pitcher of record for the Bucs. She went the distance and allowed four earned runs on five hits with five walks and three punchouts.

Up next, Blinn hosts San Jacinto College-South for a Region XIV South twin bill beginning at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at Hohlt Park in Brenham. KWHI will have live coverage of the second game beginning tentatively at 4:05pm with the pregame and 4:30pm with the first pitch.