BRENHAM, Texas —The Blinn College baseball team dropped a pair of close games to Alvin Community College, despite totaling 11 hits off the Dolphins, Saturday at Leroy Dreyer Field.
The Buccaneers lost to Alvin, 6-3, in the first game, and 5-4 in the second game. Blinn and Alvin concluded a four-game conference series 2-2.
With the pair of losses, the Buccaneers are now 12-9 overall and 7-7 in conference play.
“It was disappointing in terms of the opportunities that we had today to go win the series,” head coach Harvey McIntyre said. “I thought our hitters took competitive at-bats in Game 1 to get us back into it. We need to try to do everything we can to become a more consistent ballclub.”
Alvin 6 – Blinn 3
A three-run sixth inning helped Alvin defeat Blinn in the doubleheader opener, 6-3.
Jett Garcia drove in two runs, while Westley Schields hit a solo home run for the Buccaneers. In addition , Preston Hoffart and Nick Wolff each scored one run in the game.
The Dolphins jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the opening inning, but Blinn came back from the early deficit and evened the score in the fifth.
Hoffart sparked the offense with a double, and Wolff and Brandon Williams followed with walks to load the bases in the second inning. Then, Garcia came up with a clutch single for two runs to score.
Shields opened the fifth inning with a solo home for Blinn to even the score 3-3.
However, Alvin answered back with three runs in the next inning to take a 6-3 lead for good.
Alvin 5 – Blinn 4
Blinn concluded the day with a 5-4 loss to Alvin in a back-and-forth game.
Garrison Weiss, Tyler Russell, and Hoffart each drove in one run, while Kam Kelton, AJ Mays, Russell and Wolff each scored one.
On the mound, Evan Aschenbeck allowed just two earned runs on eight hits in six innings of work. Eric Oakes came in as relief and surrendered just one earned run on two hits in three innings.
Blinn took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Russell tripled and scored on Hoffart’s sacrifice fly, and Wolff scored on an error.
Alvin evened the score in the fifth inning and pulled ahead 3-2 in the sixth.
The Buccaneers tied the game 3-3 when Kelton singled, moved to third on an error, and scored on a groundout in the sixth inning.
The Dolphins jumped back ahead 4-3 in the seventh inning, but Blinn tied the game once again in the bottom of the inning when Mays and Weiss hit back-to-back doubles for one run to score.
Alvin fought back to take a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning and held it for the remainder of the game. Wolff drew a walk in the ninth inning, but was left stranded.
Next, the Buccaneers will take a break from conference play and play a game at Temple College on Monday, March 29, at 3 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 41 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
