BLINN BASEBALL TO OPEN JUCO WORLD SERIES AS #2 SEED
Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information
When the 2026 NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series begins Saturday at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colo., the Blinn College baseball team will find itself in familiar territory.
The Buccaneers (45-12) are not only making their fourth consecutive World Series appearance, but they also enter the 10-team bracket as the tournament’s No. 2 seed for the second straight season.
Blinn, which concluded the regular season ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA DI poll, will face ninth-seeded Salt Lake Community College (Salt Lake City, Utah) at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday at Sam Suplizio Field. The matchup features the past two NJCAA Division I national champions, as the Bucs captured their first national title in 2024 before the Bruins claimed their first crown in 2025.
The Bucs are making the 10th World Series appearance in program history.
Every game of the World Series will stream live on ESPN+, while Blinn media partner TSBN Sports will provide radio coverage of Buccaneers’ games at www.tsbnsports.com.
Head coach Dusty Hart is in his fourth season at Blinn and owns a 186-59 record with the team. Since arriving in 2023, he has guided Blinn to a 9-5 mark at the World Series and is seeking his second national championship with the program and third overall. He previously led Grayson College to a national title in 2008.
The trip to Grand Junction will carry added significance for Hart and the Buccaneers, as the NJCAA Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place during Thursday’s pre-tournament banquet and include Hart as a member of the 2026 class.
Elsewhere in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament, fourth-seeded Walters State Community College (Morristown, Tenn.) — the 2025 national runner-up — faces seventh-seeded Seminole State College of Florida (Sanford, Fla.) in Saturday’s opener at 10 a.m. CT. Top-seeded Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, Kan.) meets 10th-seeded Harford Community College (Bel Air, Md.) at 1 p.m.
In Saturday’s final first-round contest, third-seeded Midland College (Midland, Texas) takes on eighth-seeded Wabash Valley College (Mount Carmel, Ill.) at 8:30 p.m.
The opening round concludes Sunday with a matchup between fifth-seeded LSU Eunice (Eunice, La.) and sixth-seeded Miami Dade College (Miami, Fla.) at 11 a.m.
Two consolation games are also scheduled for Sunday before winners and losers bracket play resumes Monday and continues through championship weekend May 29-30.