(Pictured right: Blinn College's Acie Prince.)
The Blinn College softball team earned its first two victories of the season with a dramatic doubleheader sweep of Temple College on Friday at Hohlt Park in Brenham.
The Buccaneers improved to 2-4 overall behind a display of offensive firepower and a clutch pitching performance.
"It's great to get a doubleheader win at home to hopefully get us on the right track for the rest of the season," Blinn head coach Rick Church said. "Hopefully today will give us some motivation and some momentum."
Blinn 6, Temple 5 (Game 2)
Temple rallied from a 4-0 first-inning deficit and led 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh frame, but Buccaneer sophomore Acie Prine hit a two-run, pinch-hit home run to give Blinn the walk-off victory.
Freshman Emily Kristynik doubled to open the seventh for the Bucs and moved to third on a passed ball. One out later, Prince sent a line drive over the center-field wall to complete the sweep.
"As soon as I stepped in the batter's box, I was thinking, 'Walk it off,'" Prince said. "I just went in there with the idea of hitting it as hard as I could.
"It was surreal. We were so excited to just get those wins. It was a blast, and we had a bunch of fun doing it."
Prince homered in the opener of the twin bill but was on the bench for the nightcap.
"You can't ask for more out of your pinch hitter than we got in that moment," Church said. "You've got to be ready for your at-bat when it's your turn, and Acie certainly was."
Blinn opened the game with four runs, beginning with an error that scored sophomore Chandler Talbot. Kristynik drew a bases-loaded walk to send sophomore Natilee Reed to the plate and freshman Kenley Strange scored sophomore Teagan Whitely with a sacrifice fly. Sophomore Kayla Wallace later drew the second bases-loaded walk of the inning to make it a 4-0 ballgame.
From there, Temple chipped away with a run in the second inning, another in the fourth, and two in the sixth before pushing across the go-ahead run in the seventh.
"You put a four-spot on them in the first inning and you think you're in good shape, but we let them chip away and get ahead," Church said. "So, I was glad to see we fought back to end it."
Blinn finished with nine hits, including two apiece for Talbot, Reed, and sophomore Keely Castillo.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Sadler earned the victory in relief with two innings of work.
(Pictured: Blinn College's Chloee Mason.)
Blinn 6, Temple 2 (game one)
Prince, Castillo, and Strange each hit homers for the Bucs, and freshman pitcher Chloee Mason pitched a five-hit complete game to deliver Blinn its first win of the season.
Mason allowed one earned run with four strikeouts and no walks.
"I really just focused on putting up a zero every inning and I think my defense backed me up very well," Mason said. "Plus, our offense really boosted my confidence because whenever you have a lead, you focus on keeping the lead and winning every inning, and that allowed me to focus on putting up zeroes – they had my back."
Prince homered in the bottom of the second inning to make it a 1-0 game, and after the Leopards jumped ahead 2-1 in the fourth, Castillo tied things up with a solo shot in the home half of the inning. Prince then walked and Strange sent a two-run blast to left field to make it 4-2 and put the hosts ahead for good.
"I was really determined to hit the ball hard," Strange said. "Today was good because when we make contact things start to happen, and when we string things together like we did today, that's how we're going to win."
Whitely and Prince added RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth to close out the scoring.
Blinn will host a doubleheader against McLennan Community College beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18, at Hohlt Park.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
