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Blinn College

Scoreboard

Blinn Home Run Celebration 2026
2
Wabash Valley College WABASH 43-21
10
Winner Blinn College BLINN 46-12
Wabash Valley College WABASH
43-21
2
Final
10
Blinn College BLINN
46-12
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Wabash Valley College WABASH 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 7 1
Blinn College BLINN 1 0 0 2 3 4 X 10 13 1

W: Ekdall, Luke (8-6) L: Dylan Thompson (8-3)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Second-seeded Buccaneers cruise past Wabash Valley for 2-0 start in World Series

Blinn hit three home runs and got a quality start from Luke Ekdall to run-rule the Warriors

The Blinn College baseball team is rolling in Grand Junction, Colo.

The second-seeded Buccaneers paired another power-hitting performance with another dominant pitching effort in a 10-2 run-rule victory over eighth-seeded Wabash Valley College in round two of the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series on Monday at Sam Suplizio Field.

The seven-inning victory improved Blinn to 2-0 in the tournament, marked the Bucs' second consecutive run-rule win, extended their winning streak to 15 and run of double-digit scoring games to six, and earned them a third-round matchup against sixth-seeded Miami Dade College at 8 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

"Today's game was just two really good baseball teams going at it," Blinn head coach Dusty Hart said. "Wabash Valley is always a well-coached club, and we knew we were going to have our hands full between that and the early start. We were out of our routine a little bit because I'm sure our guys haven't gotten up at 6 a.m. in a long time. I thought they handled all of it really well."

The Bucs (47-12) were playing their earliest game of the season, but the 9 a.m. MT first pitch did little to slow them down.

Sophomore shortstop Jacob Bohacek opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run to right field, his third blast of the World Series.

Blinn continued its power surge in the middle innings as freshman third baseman Ryley Leininger launched a three-run homer in the fifth inning, his second of the tournament, before freshman designated hitter Dane Perry added a three-run blast in the sixth for his first World Series home run.

The Bucs matched the three-home-run performance they produced in Saturday's first-round victory over defending champion Salt Lake Community College.

After Bohacek gave his team the lead, Blinn made it 3-0 in the fourth inning when sophomore second baseman Hunter Smolinski singled on a hard groundball that scored two more runs.

Smolinski, who grew up 13 miles from Grand Junction in Fruita, Colo., and spent his childhood summers in the stands at Suplizio Field, said delivering in a key moment was special. A contingent of local supporters, many of them Smolinski's friends and family members, made their presence known throughout the game.

"It was awesome, especially in a situation like that," he said. "It hasn't completely hit me yet, but I'm just trying to soak it up and enjoy it."

Wabash Valley trimmed the deficit with two runs in the top of the fifth inning, but Blinn answered immediately in the bottom half.

Following a one-out walk to freshman catcher Zachary Tuxhorn and a single from sophomore utility man Benji Barrera, Leininger crushed a 1-1 offering over the wall in center field.

Leininger added an RBI single in the sixth before Perry went deep to right field to cap the scoring and put the run-rule into motion.

"I felt really good at the plate," Perry said. "I took a fastball for a strike and decided if I saw another one, I was going to take a hack at it, and the next pitch, that's exactly what happened."

Blinn finished with 12 hits, led by Perry's three-hit performance. He finished a triple shy of the cycle while driving in three runs. Leininger added two hits and four RBIs, Smolinski had two hits and plated a pair, and Bohacek and Barrera chipped in two hits apiece.

Redshirt freshman Luke Ekdall (8-6) earned the win for the Bucs after tossing his third consecutive quality start. The right-hander allowed two earned runs on six hits, walked three and struck out five.

Sophomore left-hander Ben Polleschultz entered in the seventh for the Bucs. After walking the first hitter he faced, he struck out the next three Warriors to end it.

Ekdall, the NJCAA Division I leader in strikeouts (117), is in his third year at Blinn but is competing in his first full season after injuries wiped out both his 2024 and 2025 campaigns.

"It's a bigger stage, but at the end of the day it's the same game," Ekdall said. "Being out there today was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. Pitching on that mound is just a lot of fun. I just stuck with the same plan I've had all year, which was to execute the pitches that were called, and I felt comfortable throwing all of my pitches."

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 53 national championships since 1987.
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