BLINN SOFTBALL INCHES CLOSER TO FIRST AFTER SWEEP OF COASTAL BEND

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

With first place in the Region XIV South division still within its reach, the Blinn College softball team is happy adding tallies to the win column however they come.

The Buccaneers pushed their winning streak to eight Tuesday with a 3-1, 8-6 doubleheader sweep of South foe Coastal Bend College at Hohlt Park in Brenham, Texas.

Blinn played at home for the final time this season.

The Bucs have made a habit of emerging victorious in nail-biters, with six of their past eight victories coming by three runs or less.

Blinn will take it, as it pulled even at 21-21 overall and is now 17-5 in the South. The Bucs are in second place and sit just .027 percentage points behind Galveston College for the South's top seed in the upcoming Region XIV Tournament. Blinn has two South games remaining, while Galveston has four.

The Bucs rallied from behind in both of Tuesday's ballgames.

Sophomore Paige Bunting fueled her team from the pitcher's circle with her sixth complete game in as many starts.

She also pushed her winning streak to six and improved to 10-9. She gave up eight hits to the Cougars but allowed just one earned run while fanning five and walking none.

"My confidence is at an all-time high and I'm trusting my pitches when I'm in the circle," Bunting said. "When you get three runs of support and you have a small lead, you have to hone in and focus on hitting the corners (of the plate) and make sure you're missing the hitters' barrels."

The Bucs trailed 1-0 early but finally got going in the bottom of the fourth frame.

Sophomore Grace Bracken tied the game with an RBI single, and freshman Cadence Wiese put the hosts ahead for good with a leadoff solo home run in the sixth. Bracken gave her team some insurance with an RBI single later in the inning.

Blinn finished with eight hits, led by two-hit efforts for Bracken and freshman Annie Beckendorf.

Coastal Bend put its leadoff runner on first in the top of the seventh, but Bunting retired the next three Cougars she faced to seal the win.

In game two, Coastal Bend again jumped ahead early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first.

The Bucs answered with a four-run second, kickstarted by an RBI double for Beckendorf. A game-tying RBI single for sophomore Bella De Los Santos followed and a go-ahead RBI double for sophomore T'Era Garrett put Blinn on top to stay. Freshman Halle Scheel singled in Garrett to make it 4-2.

The Bucs added another run in the fifth before the Cougars began to rally.

The visitors scored two in the top of the fourth, which Blinn matched in its half of the inning, and the Cougars struck twice more in the fifth to cut Blinn's lead to 7-6.

A bases loaded walk issued to Bracken gave the Bucs some breathing room in the sixth.

Bunting, who returned to the circle for some mop-up duty with two outs in the fifth, then set Coastal Bend down in order in the top of the seventh to earn her first save. In 2 1/3 innings of work, Bunting struck out four and didn't surrender a hit or a walk.

Freshman pitcher Madisyn Bracknell worked three innings to open the game for Blinn and earned the victory to improve to 4-2. She gave up five hits, four runs (three earned), and three walks with one strikeout.

Freshman Brynn Gallamore went 1 2/3 innings following Bracknell's exit.

The Bucs finished with nine hits, paced by Beckendorf's 3-for-4, three-RBI showing. De Los Santos and Scheel had two hits apiece. 

Blinn's regular season concludes with a South doubleheader at San Jacinto College-South at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, in Houston.