BLINN BASEBALL SWEEPS DOUBLEHEADER OVER TEMPLE
Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information
The No. 2 Blinn College baseball team kept its hot streak alive with a doubleheader sweep of Temple College on Saturday in Temple, Texas.
The Buccaneers earned a 10-9, extra-innings triumph in game one and rolled to a 13-1 run-rule victory (5 inn.) in the finale.
Blinn improved to 10-5 overall and has won five consecutive games.
In the opener, the Bucs rallied out a 5-1 deficit early in the ballgame, eventually taking a 9-6 lead into the seventh inning before the Leopards rallied to force an eighth frame.
In the top of the eighth, back-to-back two-out walks set up outfielder Brady Sullivan for a big at-bat, and the sophomore came through with an RBI double for the game-winning run.
Sullivan entered the game as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the seventh.
“Brady comes off the bench to play defense and all of a sudden he’s in a position to hit in a big spot,” Blinn head coach Dusty Hart said. “It says a lot about who he is as a player and a teammate that he was ready for that moment and came through for us.”
In the bottom of the eighth, freshman third baseman/pitcher Ryley Leininger – who was on the mound in a relief appearance when Temple tied the game in the seventh – bounced back in the eighth and worked around a one-out walk to close out the win.
“Ryley gave up the game-tying home run and then was mentally tough enough to go get three outs for us in the bottom of the eighth,” Hart said. “That’s the type of resiliency and toughness you want to see from a young player.”
For the game, Blinn collected eight hits and drew 11 walks.
Sophomore utility player Benji Barrera launched a home run and drove in three RBIs to go with a walk. Leininger homered, finished with three RBIs, walked twice, and scored three runs. Freshman utility man Zachary Tuxhorn added a home run (his fifth), drove in two runs, walked twice, and crossed the plate three times. Sophomore outfielder Reece Lunsford collected two hits, including a double, and walked once. Sophomore outfielder Kason Atkins chipped in an RBI single.
On the mound, freshman pitcher Luke Ekdall started and worked five innings. He gave up six runs (five earned) on six hits with five walks and seven strikeouts. Freshman reliever Landon Bowden tossed 1 2/3 frames and gave up two earned runs on a pair of hits with one strikeout and one walk. Leininger earned the first pitching victory of his collegiate career after going 1 1/3 innings in which he allowed one hit, one earned run, one walk, and fanned one.
In game two, Blinn quickly dismissed the possibility of a second nail-biter.
The Bucs tallied three runs in the first inning on a solo home run from sophomore infielder Jacob Bohacek and a two-run double from Atkins.
Blinn added another run in the second before erupting for six in the third.
Freshman catcher Dane Perry – in his first collegiate game – blasted a three-run homer to left field for a 7-0 Bucs advantage. Two walks later, Bohacek added his second long ball of the contest and team-leading seventh of the season on a drive to center field. Bohacek now has a team-high 19 RBIs.
Perry added an RBI single in the fourth frame, followed by sophomore infielder Hunter Smolinski’s two-run shot. The homer was Smolinski’s fifth of the year.
Temple got one run back in the home half of the fourth.
“Game two was a sign that these guys are learning and growing as baseball players,” Hart explained. “It can be hard to stay locked in during a long doubleheader, but we came back for game two locked in and avoided a letdown, which is a huge statement for our guys.”
Blinn totaled nine hits and seven walks.
Bohacek, Tuxhorn, and Perry finished with two hits apiece. Perry and Bohacek each drove in four runs. Tuxhorn and Atkins doubled, while Barrera added a triple.
Complementing Blinn’s offensive outburst was a stellar outing from sophomore starting pitcher Hayden Morris.
The second-year Buc improved to 3-1 on the year after he worked a three-hit complete game in which he allowed one earned run with nine strikeouts and just one walk.
“Today was Hayden’s best outing of the season so far,” Hart said. “He was really sharp and he had all of his pitches working. With the wind blowing out, he pitched extraordinarily well in hitter-friendly conditions.”
Up next, Blinn takes its winning streak into its first Region 14 South series of the season. The Buccaneers visit Coastal Bend College for the opener of a three-game set at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Beeville, Texas.
“Confidence and momentum are huge in baseball, and I think we have a little bit of both right now,” said Hart. “I think we’re starting to show signs that we could be a pretty special group, and now we have to go into the most important part of our season and keep proving it.”