On Tuesday afternoon, February 27th The Coastal Bend Cougars hosted the Blinn Buccaneers for a double header. Marco Becerril started the game for the Cougars, making his fourth appearance as a starting pitcher from the bump.
Josh Burnett hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the first inning to tie the score, one to one. Luis Castellanos came up to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning with bases loaded. Castellanos brought in two runs with a two out double, tying up the ball game at three apiece. Jordan Gochenour would have the bases loaded for his next plate appearance and hit a bases clearing triple to bring in three Cougar runs to put Coastal Bend up 6-3 . In the bottom of the sixth inning, Mitchell Sexton reached first base by drawing a walk. On the next pitch, Sexton advanced to second base of a balk by the Blinn pitcher. Now being in scoring position and Burnett at the plate, Burnett would smack a pitch to the center field wall for a triple, scoring Sexton. Gochenour would come up next to the plate and bring in Burnett from third base with a fielding error from the Blinn Right Fielder, to put Coastal Bend up three to eight. Ruben Sepulveda would get hit by a pitch at his next at bat, bringing up Bo Gonzales. Gonzales with runners on the corners, hit a single to bring in Gochenour. With the score now 9-3 and the bases loaded for Kyler Bumstead, Bumstead would hit a single over the second baseman's head for a single, bringing in two Cougar runners to add to the lead. Before the end of the sixth inning, Castellanos would score on a passed ball, putting Coastal Bend up 12-3.
Becerril pitched a complete seven innings for Coastal Bend allowing three earned runs off of five hits from the Buccaneers.The final score of the ball game ended up being 12-3, Cougars. After earning his fourth winning of the season and striking out five Blinn hitters, Becerril received National Pitcher of the Week honors for NJCAA Division III. This marks the second week in a row CBC has had NPOW honors.
Michael Smith would get the start for the second game of the double header against the Blinn Buccaneers. After being able to go two innings in the ball game, Michael Dinsdale came into relieve Smith. Dinsdale, coming fresh off National Pitcher of the Week honors, pitched five innings allowing three hits while also striking out three from 18 Blinn batters that he faced on the evening.
Ruben Sepulveda hit a two run bomb to left center field to put the Cougars up two to one. Moving ahead to the bottom of the third inning, Joel Rodriguez lead the Cougars off with a walk. Burnett laid down a perfect, sacrifice push bunt down to the first base line to move Rodriguez into scoring position. Rodriguez would advance to third base off a flyout from Gochenour. Sepulveda would come up to bat and hit a double to the left center gap, to score Rodriguez and extend the Cougar lead, 3-1. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Bumstead was able to get on base by a dropped ball on a third strike. Bumstead stoles second base to get in scoring positon as Sexton hit a single into shallow center field to score the runner with two outs left in the sixth inning. With the score 4-1 headed to the top of the seventh inning, the Buccaneers attempted to score, but were quickly denied by Dinsdale to end the game. Dinsdale would tally up the win, earning his second win of the season while not allowing a run and holding Blinn to only one run with the final score being 4-1, Coastal Bend.
The Coastal Bend sweep improves their record to 11-9 on the season, with a five game win streak.