HOUSTON, Texas — The Blinn College softball team opened the NJCAA Region XIV-South Softball Tournament with a 9-7 win over Coastal Bend College Friday.
With the win, the Buccaneers are now 22-17 overall and will compete against No. 11 San Jacinto College-South on Saturday, May 15, at 5 p.m.
“We had good offensive intensity and scored in five of six innings,” head coach Rick Church said. “We just need to finish games stronger defensively the rest of the way out.”
Keely Castillo and Skylar Shanahan led the offense by combining for seven RBIs. The Buccaneers also totaled three long balls in the game. Shanahan hit a two-run home run, while Castillo and Renna Toomey each hit solo home runs. Mikaela Lopez also drove in one run in the win. In addition, Castillo led Blinn with three runs, while Chloe Woodward went 3-for-4 and scored two runs.
Toomey earned the win after pitching 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and surrendering six earned runs. Shanahan recorded the final out of the game.
Blinn took an early 4-0 lead after scoring one run in each of the first and second innings and two runs in the third inning. Woodward scored Blinn’s first run off Castillo’s sacrifice fly and Toomey put up Blinn’s second run with a solo home run. Shanahan and Lopez each hit one-run singles in the third inning for the Buccaneers to lead 4-0.
Coastal Bend landed on the board with two runs in the fifth inning to cut Blinn’s lead in half. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Castillo answered back for the Buccaneers with a solo home run.
Blinn extended its lead to 9-2 after scoring four runs in the sixth inning. Castillo kicked things off in the inning with a two-run double, and Shanahan followed with a two-run blast over the fence.
Coastal Bend rallied for five runs in the seventh inning before the Buccaneers claimed the win.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
