COLUMBUS, Ga. – Prior to Saturday morning, the LSU-Eunice softball team was undefeated, had won 17 straight games and was dominating NJCAA Division I softball teams all season.
Avery Mullendore and the Blinn softball team ended all that here Saturday at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.
Mullendore hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh as the Buccaneers rallied to upset the No. 1-ranked NJCAA Division II softball team 7-6. With the win, the Bucs swept through pool play, 3-0, to advance to the tournament's gold bracket, where they defeated Odessa College 9-1.
"Our goal before we started the tournament was to advance to the gold bracket", Blinn (17-4) coach Rick Church said. "The girls knew the last Blinn team that participated in the tournament had won the gold bracket."
That win came back in 2011—the invitation-only tournament is held once every three years—when the Bucs won the Classic. Blinn has a chance to do so once again Sunday with a 10 a.m. game against top-ranked Wallace State. With a win, the Bucs will advance to the gold bracket finals at noon.
For much of the game against Eunice, it looked as if the Lady Tigers would be the team advancing to the gold bracket. Eunice took a 6-1 lead in the top fifth before freshman pitcher Jaiden Rawls came on in relief and helped quiet down the Lady Tigers offense, while Blinn's hitters chipped away at Eunice's lead.
Blinn made it a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth with RBI knocks from sophomore Sydney Wellmann and Mullendore. Rawls jacked a home run—her fifth of the season—and freshman Alli Spivey had an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to set up Mullendore's walk-off single.
"When we were down 6-1 our body language looked like we were done," Church said. "But we regained our composure, got two runs and started competing like we wanted to come back."
It's the kind of composure Church wants to see from his team, which has struggled in the second day of tournaments this season.
The Bucs carried the momentum from their walk-off win against Odessa.
Blinn had a 9-0 lead, including a five-run third inning, before Odessa put its lone run on the board in the fifth.
Rawls tossed a five-inning one-hitter en route to her second victory of the day. Allie Piro, batting in the eight-hole, was 2-for-2 with five RBI against Odessa, including a three-run home run in the second inning.
Delilah Pacheco was 2-for-3 with a runs scored and Wellmann was 1-for-2 with three RBI.
"We did a good job of getting runners on and getting good key hits, which led to a bunch of runs," Church said.
