BLINN SWEEPS GALVESTON IN CONFERENCE DOUBLEHEADER

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The Blinn College softball team is making things interesting.

The Buccaneers earned arguably their most impressive and most important sweep of the season Wednesday as they defeated Region XIV South foe and 22nd-ranked Galveston College 3-0 and 8-6 at Hohlt Park in Brenham, Texas.

The two wins pulled Blinn within mere percentage points of the Whitecaps, who currently lead the way in the South standings. Galveston dropped to 12-4 (.750), while the Bucs improved to 13-5 (.722) and 17-21 overall.

"We're certainly making a case for ourselves down the stretch," Blinn head coach Rick Church said. "We kept Galveston off the scoreboard in game one, and that doesn't happen very often. It was as impressive as it's a hard thing to do. Now all we need to do is take care of business in our final six region games and see what happens."

Galveston has eight region games remaining this season while the Bucs have just six. Blinn's best chances of overtaking the Whitecaps in the standings would be to win out and hope for a few results to go against Galveston. Should the two teams finish tied, the tiebreaker starts with head-to-head records followed by records against the third- and — if necessary — fourth-place teams in the standings. The Bucs and Whitecaps split their four games this spring.

The top four teams in the South reach the Region XIV Tournament, which also features four teams from the North division.

Blinn got off on the right foot Wednesday behind another spectacular effort from starting pitcher Paige Bunting. 

The sophomore made it four wins in a row behind her fourth consecutive complete game. Bunting (8-9) allowed five hits, walked one, and struck out four while throwing 72 of her 116 pitches for strikes.

She was backed by a Bucs offense which gave her three runs in the bottom of the first inning. 

Sophomore Bailey Boetjer's two-run home run to left field – her 10th of the season – got the scoring started before freshman Cadence Wiese made it back-to-back jacks with a solo shot to left.

Boetjer finished with two of Blinn's three hits. 

In game two, freshman pitcher Madysen Bracknell worked around some defensive errors to go the distance, and the Bucs' offense staged a three-run rally in the sixth inning to complete the sweep.

Bracknell improved to 3-2 on the season after allowing two earned runs on eight hits with a pair of walks and five punchouts.

She emerged victorious in a back-and-forth affair.

After the Whitecaps rallied to take a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth, Wiese sent her second homer of the day – a two-run shot – to left field to tie things up.

Then in the sixth, two straight one-out singles from sophomores Bella De Los Santos and T'Era Garrett preceded freshman Halle Scheel's RBI double. After sophomore Darian DeLeon was hit by a pitch, Boetjer plated a run on an RBI fielder's choice. Wiese then made it 8-5 on a sacrifice fly.

Galveston got one back in the top of the seventh, but with two runners on and two outs in the inning, Wiese – Blinn's catcher – threw out a Whitecap baserunner attempting to steal third base. Freshman third baseman Annie Beckendorf applied the tag to end the game.

Blinn finished with nine hits, including three for Scheele (double, triple, and two RBIs) and a pair for DeLeon. 

Blinn and Galveston each scored one run in the first inning. The Whitecaps took the lead with a run in the second before the Bucs pushed two across in their half of the inning for a 3-2 edge.

Next up for Blinn is a South twin bill at Angelina College at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Lufkin, Texas.