TYLER, Texas — The Blinn College baseball team eliminated Wharton County Junior College before falling to Bossier Parish Community College in the NJCAA Region XIV-North Baseball Championship Tournament at Irwin Field on Saturday.
Blinn opened the day with a 7-0 shutout win over Wharton, before falling to Bossier Parish, 10-9.
“We responded, competed well today and found a way to hang around, but we just weren’t very efficient the last four innings on the mound and it cost us,” head coach Harvey McIntyre said. “It is a tough one to swallow in Game 2 for sure. Our kids stayed the course, continued to show up early daily and gave us their best effort, but we just didn’t get the results we all wanted in the end.”
With the split, the Buccaneers were eliminated from the postseason tournament and end the season with a 22-22 overall record.
“We want to think all who allowed, helped, and kept our players on the field during these times,” McIntyre said. “It took a great deal of effort by our administration, athletic department, sports medicine staff, game-day staff, transportation, and many others this spring.”
Blinn 7 – Wharton 0
The Buccaneers shutout Wharton to open the day with a 7-0 win.
Westley Schields went 2-for-3 to lead the Buccaneers with three RBIs and one run, while Jett Garcia, Kam Kelton, and Jack Schell each drove in one run, and Garrison Weiss led Blinn with two runs.
Evan Aschenbeck earned the win on the mound after tossing eight scoreless innings and only giving up three hits, while striking out 10. Mason Muras closed out the game and didn’t allow one hit in one inning.
Blinn scored three runs in the first inning to open the game on a good note. After Weiss drew a walk and Garcia singled, Schields hit a three-run bomb for Blinn’s first three runs.
The Buccaneers tacked on two runs to lead 5-0 in the third inning after Weiss stole home and Kelton a hit one-run single.
Blinn added one run in the fourth inning on Garcia’s single and scored its final run in the seventh inning when Kelton scored on Schell’s sacrifice fly.
Bossier Parish 10 – Blinn 9
Bossier Parish rallied back for a 10-9 win to eliminate Blinn from the postseason tournament.
Ben Hovda led the way for Blinn’s offense with three hits and two runs and RBIs, while Garcia scored a team-high three runs and Weiss scored two.
Tanner Sherrill started the game and allowed only one earned run in the first 4 1/3 innings.
Blinn built a 9-2 lead in the first two innings before Bossier Parish rallied back for the win.
Blinn took an early lead with two runs in the first inning when Garcia hit a one-run double and scored during a double play.
The Cavaliers evened the score in the bottom of the first inning, but Blinn pulled back on top in the second inning on Nick Wolff‘s solo home run.
Blinn extended its lead to 9-2 after scoring three runs in each of the third and fourth innings. Hovda drove in the first run of the third inning with a single, then scored during a double play. Kelton scored next on a passed ball for Blinn to lead 6-2. In the fourth inning, Hovda hit a one-run double, Garcia scored on Kelton’s sacrifice fly and Hovda scored on an error.
Bossier Parish began its rally in the sixth inning with two runs and then scored four runs in the eighth inning to gain on Blinn, 9-8. With two outs in the ninth inning, the Cavaliers were able to knock in the final two runs needed for a 10-9 walk-off win.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
