BEEVILLE, Texas – The offense for Blinn College baseball started out of the gates early with four runs in the opening inning and never looked back to beat Coastal Bend College 11-5 Wednesday afternoon.
"This was a great job offensively by getting us up and out of the gates," said Harvey McIntyre, Blinn head coach.
The Buccaneers improve to 22-18 with the non-conference road victory and stay at 12-11 in Region XIV play.
Angel De La Fuente had a double and a single to bring in a pair of runs. Trent Murphy and Johnny Rizer each had a double and both had two RBIs in the victory.
Brandon Symmank pitched the first three innings and picked up the win after allowing two earned runs on four hits while striking out one. Cody Moos, Kyle Gray and Cody Van Cleave each pitched a scoreless inning for the Buccaneers as Blinn worked out seven different pitchers in the non-conference game.
"It was very nice to see multiple arms put some zeroes on the scoreboard and let us extend the lead," McIntyre said.
Blinn got off to a great start and loaded the bases after a single by Jay Anderson and walks by Anthony Jones and Colton Parrish. De La Fuente and Sam McElreath drew back-to-back walks with the bases loaded for a 2-0 lead. Rizer followed with a sacrifice fly to center for the third run. Murphy capped the scoring in the opening inning with a double to left to give the Buccaneers a 4-0 lead. Coastal Bend did counter with two runs in the bottom half to get within 4-2 after an inning.
Blinn went after more runs in the third as De La Fuente started it off with a one out walk and then came in to score on a double by Rizer to center for a 5-2 lead. Murphy pushed across the sixth run with a bases loaded walk and then Tyler Fowler capped the scoring with a RBI ground out for a 7-2 Blinn edge.
De La Fuente helped to supply a run in the fourth inning as he nailed a double to left to score Jones for an 8-2 advantage. Jones came back in the fifth inning for his own RBI as he was able to rip a single to center to score Fowler for a 9-2 lead.
Blinn padded its lead in the eighth inning as Caleb Morris started off the inning with a single and then was able to score on a wild pitch with two outs for a 10-2 lead. Coastal Bend put a dent into the Blinn lead with two runs in the eighth to get within 10-4.
Blinn was able to put one more on the scoreboard in the ninth inning as Hunter Trinidad started it off with a one-out single and then came in to score on an RBI single by Zach Cherry to right to give Blinn an 11-4 lead. Coastal Bend scored one run in the final inning to make the final score 11-5 for the Buccaneers.
Blinn will play on the road at Navarro College on Tuesday, April 18 for a game that starts at 3 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 36 NJCAA national championships since 1987. For more information, visit www.buccaneersports.com.
About Blinn College
With an enrollment of 19,422 students, Blinn ranks among the nation's leaders in transferring students to leading four-year universities and has received national recognition for affordable educational excellence. For more information, visit www.blinn.edu.
