BUCS SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER WITH COASTAL BEND

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The second-ranked Blinn College baseball team fell just short of a doubleheader sweep of Region XIV South foe Coastal Bend College on Saturday in Beeville, Texas.

The Buccaneers claimed the opener 12-5 before dropping the finale 9-7. Blinn took three of four contests in the four-game series.

"I was proud of the effort to never give up, but we just made too many mistakes in game two and Coastal Bend capitalized while we didn't," Bucs head coach Dusty Hart said. "It was very ugly baseball on our part, and they got us. You just have to tip your cap to them and move on to the next one."

Blinn moved to 30-8 overall and 18-3 in the South.

In game one, the Bucs and Cougars were tied 4-4 after two innings before the visitors took the lead for good in the third.

Three walks, two hit batsmen, and a fielder's choice led to four runs for Blinn in the top of the first frame. Coastal Bend answered with four runs against Bucs starting pitcher Hayden Morris in the second.

In the top of the third, sophomore Ryder McDaniel's two-run home run put Blinn ahead to stay.

Sophomore Matt Quintanar added a two-run shot in the fourth.

The Bucs tacked on a run in the fifth and three in the seventh, while Coastal Bend scored one in the bottom of the seventh.

Blinn finished with eight hits, including two apiece for McDaniel and sophomores Lane Allen and Caden Ferraro.

McDaniel finished with three RBIs, followed by two apiece for Quintanar, Ferraro, and freshman Drew Britton. 

Morris worked five innings for the Bucs and allowed four earned runs on eight hits. He walked four and struck out four while improving to 6-0.

In the finale, Blinn went on a furious rally in the final four innings of action, but a stellar defensive play by the Cougars cut the Bucs' comeback short.

Coastal Bend led 9-1 heading into the sixth inning before an RBI fielder's choice of the bat of sophomore Ryan Williams and a bases loaded walk for sophomore Ethan Gonzalez got the Bucs within 9-3.

Britton's RBI fielder's choice made it 9-4 in the seventh.

Ferraro drove in a run on an RBI groundout in the eighth.

In the ninth, sophomore Bennett Fryman scored on a wild pitch and McDaniel added an RBI double to close out the scoring.

Freshman Reece Lunsford represented the tying run with two outs, but a sharp ground ball to third base was corralled on a diving stop, and Lunsford was thrown out by a half step to end the game.

Blinn finished with three hits but kept itself in the game with 11 walks.

Quintanar hit a solo homer – his sixth of the season – to get the Bucs on the board in the fourth.

On the mound, freshman starting pitcher Jack Garza was saddled with the loss despite allowing just one earned run (four total) across two innings. He gave up four hits, four walks, and struck out three.

Up next, the Bucs have an opportunity to build on their first-place lead in the South when they begin a three-game set with second-place San Jacinto College-North. The Ravens trail Blinn by three games. 

The series begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 10, at Leroy Dreyer Field in Brenham, Texas.