WHARTON, Texas — Brandon Ashy led the offense with five RBIs for Blinn College baseball to pull away from Wharton County Junior College with a 15-7 victory in seven innings on Monday afternoon.
The Buccaneers now improve to 21-12 overall and 13-6 in Region XIV play.
Ashy drove in two runs with a single and three runs with a home run, while Koby Collins and Drew Ardoin each brought in a pair of runs.
Kasey Kalich recorded the win on the mound after coming in as a middle relief pitcher for four innings and only surrendering one run on four hits, while striking out five.
Wharton got the scoring started in the bottom of the first with four runs but Blinn answered back with four runs in the top of the second inning to even the score. Jake Miller drove in the first run for the Buccaneers with a single for Ashy, who scored three runs in the win, to come home. Sammy Blair followed with a double for Koby Collins to score, while Miller scored Blinn's third run on a groundout. Blair came home to even the score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ashy.
Wharton scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning to pull back ahead 6-4, but the Buccaneers evened the score up again in the top of the fourth inning. Miller led off the inning with a double and later came home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ardoin. Gibbons followed with a solo homerun to even the score 6-6.
Wharton came back with one run in the bottom of the fourth inning to gain a 7-6 lead. It wasn't until the sixth inning that Blinn took the lead for good after scoring five runs. After the Buccaneers loaded the bases, Marshall Skinner drew a walk for Ardoin to score. Ashy drove in Blinn's next two runs with a single and Collins followed with a two-run single for Blinn to take an 11-7 lead.
In the seventh inning, Blinn added four runs for a 15-7 lead. Gray Rodgers kicked things off with his first RBI of the game after hitting a single for Ardoin to score and Ashy followed with a three-run homer.
Bryce Miller came out of the bullpen to record the next three outs for the Buccaneers to run-rule Wharton.
Blinn will be back in action against Galveston College in a doubleheader on Thursday, April 12 starting at 4 p.m. at Leroy Dreyer Field.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 36 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
