BUCS WIN WILD ONE OVER SAN JAC, 18-12

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The Blinn College baseball team learned Thursday that the quickest way to erase a big deficit is with a big inning.

The second-ranked Buccaneers dug themselves out of a 10-run hole with a 12-run third inning and cruised from there as Blinn shocked San Jacinto College-North 18-12 at Leroy Dreyer Field in Brenham, Texas.

"How could you be any prouder of a group of baseball players than I am right now of our guys," Blinn head coach Dusty Hart asked. "I'm just smiling from ear to ear right now. We got sped up in the early innings tonight and fell behind, but we turned the scoreboard off in our minds and played unselfish baseball. We played the type of baseball that allows comebacks like the one we had tonight to happen."

The Region XIV South victory pushed the Bucs to 31-8 overall and 19-3 in the region standings, where they increased their first-place lead over the second-place Ravens to four games.

Things nearly went off the rails for Blinn in the early innings as San Jacinto took advantage of an off night for Bucs freshman pitcher Cadyn Shaw, as well as some defensive miscues by the Blinn defense. 

The Ravens grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning but erupted for eight more runs in the second before making it a 10-0 ballgame in the top of the third.

From there, however, it was virtually an all-Blinn ballgame.

A walk and a single got the Bucs started in its half of the third before sophomore Caden Ferraro sent a one-out three-run home run – his team-high 13th of the season – to make it a 10-3 game.

The rally continued with back-to-back singles from sophomores Matt Quintanar and Lane Allen, and after a fielder's choice advanced the runners, the Bucs scored eight more runs with two outs.

Sophomore Ryan Williams was hit by a pitch to load the bases and freshman Drew Britton was also plunked to plate another run. Sophomore Ryder McDaniel followed with a two-run single, and two more walks made it 10-8.

Quintanar's second at bat of the inning resulted in a game-tying two-run single to complete the comeback, and Allen followed with a go-ahead RBI base hit. Sophomore Bennett Fryman gave the Bucs some insurance with an RBI single to make it 12-10.

Blinn finished with nine hits, three walks, and a pair of hit batsmen in the inning.

"The right approach at the plate allowed that rally to happen," Hart added. "If you're going up to the plate with your eyes on the scoreboard and making your decisions based on what you see, you're probably going to have a bad at bat. But we didn't do that; we made the right swings on the right pitches and took our walks when they came. That's how you put together big innings like we had tonight."

In the bottom of the fifth, the Bucs added a run on an error and another on a Fryman RBI single before Britton reached on a run-scoring error for a 15-10 cushion.

In the seventh, Allen lined a double to left for an RBI and freshman Trey Craig's sacrifice fly closed out the scoring for Blinn.

A San Jacinto home run pushed two tallies across for the Ravens in the eighth.

The Bucs racked up 19 hits, led by a 4-for-5 night for Quintanar. Ferraro, Allen, and Fryman had three hits apiece, and freshman Reece Lunsford added a pair out of the leadoff spot.

While the Bucs offense did its share of the heavy lifting, Blinn freshman pitcher Ben Polleschultz also played a big part in Thursday's rally.

After Shaw was chased after 1-plus innings of work, Polleschultz came on in relief in the second frame. The left-hander tossed 5 1/3 workmanlike innings of two-run ball in which he allowed five hits and no walks. He struck out three while improving to 2-0 on the year.

"That's what has to happen in those situations," Hart said. "If somebody can come in and put up zeroes on the scoreboard, they're giving you a chance to come back, and that's what Polleschultz did for us. The bullpens were the difference in the game."

Freshman Hudson Melaerts worked 1 2/3 innings before sophomore Hunter Bond entered in the ninth and struck out three straight Ravens to end the game.

The three-game set between Blinn and San Jacinto concludes with a doubleheader at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Houston.