Highlanders fall to Blinn

The McLennan Highlanders fell to the Blinn Buccaneers 10-9 this afternoon at Bosque River Ballpark. Mark Doerries took the loss on the mound.

McLennan began the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the first. Tucker Johnson led off with a home run and James Rudkin singled. Brendan Venter followed with a fielder's choice, putting Rudkin out at second. Noah McGowan drew a walk. Dimas Ojeda followed with a single, scoring Venter. McGowan and Ojeda then scored on a Blinn error. 

Angel De La Fuente put Blinn on the board with a home run in the second.

The Buccaneers cut the lead to two with Colton Parrish's home run in the third. 

Blinn added another run in the fifth with Patrick King's home run. 

The Highlanders added a run in the bottom of the fifth as McGowan singled, advanced around to third on another Blinn error and scored on a passed ball.

The Buccaneers added a run in the seventh as George Pappas doubled, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jay Anderson and scored on a single by Elijah MacNamee.

McLennan scored four runs in the seventh. McGowan singled and scored on a triple by Ojeda. Chris Roller drew a walk. Mario Vela bunted, bringing Ojeda in to score. Rudkin then doubled to score Roller and Vela.

Blinn cut the lead with three runs in the eight. Hillin Warren and Sam McElreath both singled, and De La Fuente walked to load the bases. Walker Winders followed with a double to score Warren and McElreath. Pappas then grounded out to score De La Fuente. 

The Buccaneers scored three runs in the top of the ninth to steal the win. King singled, Warren was safe at first on an error and McElreath was hit by the pitch to load the bases. Tanner Holly singled, scoring King and Warren. McElreath then scored on a single by Winders.

"Today was obviously a disappointing loss. You expect to win when you take a 9-4 lead into the eighth inning. Today however, it didn't happen," head coach Mitch Thompson said.

"I give Blinn credit because they executed pitches and got some hits to fall when we cracked the door for them. I am disappointed that we lost, but that is what happens when you don't execute situation baseball while on offense, don't execute pitches with runners in scoring position and don't make plays on defense." 

"At the end of the day, it is a game that we can and will benefit from playing because it will refocus our attention to the importance of executing the finer points of the game." 

"On an exciting note, I want to announce that all of our conference games will be broadcast on 104.9FM with Tom Barfield and Lark Smith calling the games. We have been blessed to have donors step up and provide us the ability to broadcast this year. I hope that we will see our fans at Bosque River Ballpark for our home conference games, and hope our fans will enjoy the ability to listen to Highlanders Baseball on the radio when we are on the road."

The Highlanders open conference play Wednesday with a noon doubleheader at Temple.

Blinn 10, McLennan 9
Blinn 011 010 133 – 10 14 2
McLennan 400 010 400 – 9 13 1
Cody Moos, Rayne Richard (3), Dakota Brewton (6), Dillon Turney (7), Chris Falgout (8) and Colton Parrish, George Pappas (7). Hunter Spaeth, Zach Sullivan (4), Justin Garcia (6), Palmer Wenzel (8), Mark Doerries (9) and Nic Motley. WP: Falgout; LP: Doerries. Leading hitters – Blinn: Patrick King (2-5, HR, RBI), Elijah MacNamee (3-5, RBI), Hillin Warren (2-4), Angel De La Fuente (1-4, HR, RBI), Walkder Winders (2-5, 2B, 3 RBI), Colton Parrish (1-2, HR, RBI), George Pappas (1-3, 2B, RBI) and Tanner Holly (1-1, 2 RBI); McLennan: Tucker Johnson (3-6, HR, RBI), James Rudkin (4-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Cory Voss (1-5, 2B), Noah McGowan (2-3), Dimas Ojeda (2-5,3B, 2 RBI) and Mario Vela (1-5, RBI). Record: McLennan 17-3.