BLINN BASEBALL GETS PAYBACK WIN OVER MIAMI DADE 12-2 AT JUCO WORLD SERIES
Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information
The No. 3-ranked and second-seeded Blinn College baseball team kept its national championship hopes alive Thursday in the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series.
The Buccaneers defeated 24th-ranked and sixth-seeded Miami Dade College 12-2 in six innings in an elimination-round game at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colo.
“Survive, advance, and live to play another day,” Blinn head coach Dusty Hart said.
The Bucs (49-13) will now battle top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Johnson County Community College in championship play. The Cavaliers earned a dramatic 10-9 walk-off victory over Midland College on a ninth-inning three-run homer late Thursday night.
Blinn will face Johnson County at 8 p.m. Friday. The Bucs will need to defeat the Cavaliers on Friday and again Saturday to capture their second national championship since 2024. Johnson County is unbeaten in the tournament and can win the title Friday.
Thursday's contest between the Bucs and Miami Dade was a rematch of Tuesday's World Series quarterfinal-round matchup, which the Sharks won 7-3.
This time around, Blinn went on the offensive early and pulled away late to earn a run-rule victory and eliminate Miami Dade.
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, but the Bucs answered with a five-run outburst in their half of the frame.
After freshman third baseman Ryley Leininger was hit by a pitch with one out, sophomore outfielders Reece Lunsford and Brady Sullivan laced back-to-back two-out singles to load the bases. Sophomore second baseman Hunter Smolinski then came to the plate and dropped a bases-clearing double just in front of the center-field wall. An error kept the inning going and allowed Smolinski to score, and sophomore first baseman Drew Britton added an RBI single to make it 5-1.
Miami Dade got one run back in the fourth inning.
Blinn extended its lead in the fifth when Britton led off with a double. He scored on a double from freshman catcher Zachary Tuxhorn. Following a walk and a hit batsman, Lunsford roped a three-run double to right-center field to make it 9-2.
The Bucs finished off the Sharks in the sixth when Leininger blasted a two-run home run — his 10th of the season and third of the tournament — to left field, extending Blinn's lead to 12-2 and invoking the tournament's 10-run rule.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more well-timed home run than Ryley Leininger’s,” Hart said. “We were tired, it was hot, and every pitch was just so emotional. It’s big for us because any game you can end early saves our pitching for the end of the tournament.”
Blinn totaled 12 hits.
Smolinski had a big day for the Bucs with three hits and five runs batted in while doubling twice. Britton, Tuxhorn, and Lunsford each had two hits. Lunsford and Leininger finished with two RBIs apiece.
On the mound, sophomore Dylan Thompson (10-0) earned his second victory of the World Series on short rest. He threw just 67 pitches during Blinn's first-round victory Saturday and needed only 85 to defeat Miami Dade.
Thompson won his eighth consecutive start after allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits while walking two and striking out two in a complete-game effort. He also gave the Sharks very little room for error, inducing 10 groundouts, including four that resulted in double plays, while allowing just two flyouts.
“Dylan pitched his tail off,” Hart said. “Miami Dade has a really tough, talented lineup one through nine. They refused to strike out and they competed. Dylan just had everything working, and even when we made errors behind him, he kept his composure and got us out of it.
“Those double-play balls that he got were huge, and his ability to make pitches under duress is second to none.”