MIAMI DADE HANDS BLINN BASEBALL A LOSS AT JUCO WORLD SERIES

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The Blinn College baseball team is unbeaten no more in the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series

24th-ranked and sixth-seeded Miami Dade College staged an eighth-inning rally and held on for a 7-3 victory over the third-ranked and second-seeded Buccaneers in the quarterfinal round of the double-elimination tournament Tuesday at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colo.

“It was a really good baseball game,” Bucs head coach Dusty Hart said. “I don’t know that I’d have done anything differently. We had the right guys in the right places; we just didn’t get the job done tonight.”

Blinn (47-13) drops into an elimination matchup against sixth-ranked and fifth-seeded Louisiana State University-Eunice scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on Wednesday.

The Bucs were looking to improve to 3-0 in the tournament and grabbed a 3-2 advantage on sophomore utility man Benji Barrera’s RBI bloop single in the bottom of the seventh.

The lead would not hold, however, as the Sharks led off the top of the eighth with a game-tying home run and later pushed home the go-ahead run on an RBI single.

Miami Dade added three insurance tallies in the ninth.

Before the Sharks pulled away, the game proved to be one of the most competitive of the tournament.

Coming off four weeks of rest, sophomore pitcher Hayden Morris (7-3) looked every bit the NCAA Division I commit and 2025 MLB Draft pick. The Louisiana State University commit threw 108 pitches across 7 1/3 strong innings. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out six. He was dealt the tough-luck loss.

Blinn sophomore second baseman Hunter Smolinski led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, but a double play and a strikeout ended the contest.

“I came out here today thinking, ‘One out at a time,’ and about doing everything I could for my team, and that’s what I did for seven innings,” Morris said. “The coaches and my teammates have continued to reinforce their trust in me, and honestly that’s all I could ask for.”

The Sharks matched Morris with a combination of Jesus Moreno, Andy Mesa, Jose Villegas, and Kevin Roque, with Roque tossing the final 4 1/3 innings to preserve the victory.

Miami Dade opened the scoring with a run in the second inning before Blinn freshman catcher Zachary Tuxhorn knotted things up with a solo home run — his first of the Series and 13th of the season — to left field.

The Sharks took a 2-1 lead in the fifth only for the Bucs to tie the game on a double play that scored a runner from third base.

Sophomore shortstop Jacob Bohacek and sophomore first baseman Drew Britton laced back-to-back one-out singles in the seventh before Barrera drove in Bohacek with a single for a 3-2 edge.

Sophomore pitcher Hudson Melaerts entered with one out and runners on second and third in the eighth and recorded the final two outs to escape further damage.

The Sharks got to Melaerts for three runs in the ninth before redshirt freshman Landon Bowden entered with two outs and struck out the final Miami Dade batter of the game.

Blinn finished with seven hits, including a two-hit effort from Bohacek.

“Unfortunately, sometimes it takes something like this to get your attention,” Hart added. “... So hopefully after tonight we’ll get back to doing what we do best.”