BRENHAM, Texas — The Blinn College softball team opened Friday’s doubleheader against Navarro College with a 5-3 victory.
Navarro bounced back with a 10-6 win to conclude the doubleheader and split the pair.
With the split, the Buccaneers move to 4-6 overall.
Blinn 5 – Navarro 3
Despite three late runs by the Bulldogs, Blinn was able to edge out Navarro, 5-3, to open the doubleheader.
“We had six solid innings of pitching from Renna Toomey,” head coach Rick Church said. “We gave them a little too much momentum in the seventh inning but closed it out.”
Toomey sealed her third win of the season after pitching her fourth complete game. She surrendered three unearned runs and six hits, while striking out four in seven innings.
Mikaela Lopez did a lot of damage with one swing of the bat, hitting a three-run homer to lead the offense. Keely Castillo and Samantha Rodriguez each drove in one run, while Marley Mahoney, Italie Speziale-Potter, Chloe Woodward, Reagan Majewski, and Lopez each scored one run in the win. Skylar Shanahan led the offense with two hits, including a double.
Blinn scored the only run in the first four frames when Speziale-Potter scored on a one-run single by Rodriguez in the second inning. The Buccaneers extended their lead to 4-0 in the fifth inning when Lopez hit a three-run bomb for Mahoney, who singled, and Majewski, who was hit by a pitch, to score.
Blinn scored its final run in the sixth inning when Castillo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for Woodward, who doubled earlier, to score.
Two errors helped Navarro to score three runs in the bottom of the seventh, but the Buccaneers got out of the inning for the two-run win.
Navarro 10 – Blinn 6
Despite a four-run fifth inning, the Buccaneers fell to Navarro, 10-6, to conclude the doubleheader.
“Game 2 was a combination of errors, some weak hits, and missing some of our spots on the better hitters,” Church said. “We had the bases loaded in the third and couldn’t score, but we had a good fifth inning fighting back. Credit their pitchers for keeping us off balance quite a bit.”
Speziale-Potter and Woodward helped lead Blinn’s offense with two hits and one run apiece. Shaelyn Sanders and Castillo each drove in two runs, while Sanders scored two and Castillo scored one. Acie Prince also drove in one run for the Buccaneers.
Nevada Dolnik pitched the first three innings and surrendered six runs on 12 hits, while striking out two. Skylar Shanahan pitched the final three innings and gave up four runs on six hits, while striking out two.
The Buccaneers started the game with a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning thanks to a home run off the bat of Castillo that also scored Sanders.
Navarro evened the score at the bottom of the second frame, added one run in the third frame, and scored five runs in the fourth inning to lead 8-2.
The Buccaneers fought back with four runs in the fifth inning to trail by two. Speziale-Potter, Woodward and Lopez strung together three singles to open the inning for one run to score. Sanders followed with a two-run single and later scored off of Prince’s single for Blinn to trail 8-6.
Navarro answered back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and held on to the 10-6 lead for the remainder of the game.
Next, the Buccaneers will head on the road to compete against Tyler Junior College in a doubleheader on Saturday, March 6, starting at 1 p.m.
