GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — It took eight appearances and 32 games, but Blinn College is finally playing for the Alpine Bank Junior College World Series title.
The Buccaneers rode their offense and two gutty pitching performances Friday night to hold off Georgia Highlands 15-10 in the semifinals and will play Northwest Florida State at 7 p.m. Saturday for the junior college crown.
Blinn was 14-13 in seven previous appearances in Grand Junction and is 4-1 this week.
The Buccaneers got four hits and four RBI from third baseman Cade Climie and split duties on the mound between Brendan Sweeney and Bryson Dudley. Sweeney got the start, throwing 4.1 innings, allowing nine runs on 12 hits.
Dudley, who struggled in his previous appearance, was on point when the Bucs needed him most, shutting down the Georgia Highlands offense on only two hits the final 4.2 innings. He retired the first nine men he faced, including five consecutive strikeouts. Clay Wiesen touched him for a towering home run in the eighth, the 68th blast of the tournament — the record is 71 — and a two-out single in the ninth.
Working with great pace, Dudley threw 75 pitches, 48 for strikes, and was throwing his fastball in the low 90s. He struck out seven and didn't walk a batter.
Georgia Highlands (56-10, 3-2 JUCO) scored four runs in the second inning to take a 4-1 lead, sending 10 men to the plate and stringing together four straight hits, three singles and a double, but as they've done all week, the Bucs responded.
They put up eight runs in the top of the third, with Climie hitting a two-run home run and Caden Ferraro following with a solo shot over the scoreboard. A dozen men went to the plate, scoring the eight runs on eight hits.
A four-spot by Highlands in the fifth made it 11-9, but Connor McGinnis came through with a two-run single after Tavion Vaughns drew a bases-loaded walk.
The eighth-ranked and sixth-seeded Buccaneers (46-17, 4-1) will try to take the same approach in the title game as they have all season, coach Dusty Hart said.
“You can't think about what's at stake. Execute, play the game the right way, play hard, keep passing the bat, throw strikes,” he said. “The game never changes and probably the hardest part about coming out here, is you know, these guys don't do this, playing in front of 10,000 people. … Tomorrow's what all the hard work has been for. What more can you ask for?”
For Georgia Highlands coach Dash O'Neill, he'd love to have one more game, but wouldn't trade the Chargers' first trip to Grand Junction for anything.
“It's a trip of a lifetime. These guys, a lot have never even seen the Rocky Mountains. I mean, until I got here, I'd never seen them,” he said. “These guys you know, we live in a great place, our town is awesome and we love our we love our town and we're proud of where we're from, but you come out here, you you drive through (the Rockies), you get a chance to play in an incredible stadium with a crowd that just loves baseball, and they appreciate hard play. I think our guys got to feel that, we played hard, got after it, they got some love, and man, that makes you feel great.”