Hawks, Bucs rally for wins over RC

The Howard College Hawks and Blinn College Buccaneers both staged late rallies on Saturday and raced to wins over the Ranger College Rangers in non-conference baseball play in Brenham.

The two games were last-minute additions to the Rangers' schedule when weather conditions in Oklahoma made travel plans unsafe over the weekend. Originally, the Rangers were schedule to play Northern Oklahoma-Enid and Southeast Community College of Nebraska.

Blinn College, which managed just seven hits off five RC pitchers, pushed home a run in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon and escaped with a 3-2 victory.

Ranger, 5-2 heading into today's doubleheader with North Lake College, took the early lead in the contest. The Rangers pushed home run in the top of third and held a 1-0 advantage until the fifth when Blinn managed to tie the score.

Ranger regained the lead in the seventh only to have Blinn tie the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame.

Noah Winkelman powered the RC offense against the Buccaneers by blasting a solo homer.

Austin Smith starred on the mound for RC, going 5 2/3 innings and limiting Blinn to just five hits. He struck out six

Like Blinn, Howard College needed a late rally to get past Ranger. The Hawks, who are ranked 13^th in the latest NJCAA baseball poll, fell behind early in the contest when RC outfielder Isaiah Ortega-Jones opened the game with a solo homer.

Howard College settled in from there. The Hawks limited Ranger to just one more hit in the game, a single off the bat of second baseman J.J. Padilla.

The Hawks scored three runs in the third, four in the fourth and two more in the seventh to seal the win.

Ranger College will close out its recent road swing on Wednesday with games against Western Texas College in Snyder before returning home on Feb. 25 for a doubleheader with North Lake College.