Indians Finish Second At State

The Chipola Indians baseball squad, two time defending State Champions, came up one game short of making it three in a row when they fell in the Championship game 5-3 to Santa Fe Community College. Chipola took an early lead in the final game when Dayne Read scored on a sacrifice fly by Mark Ellis in the first inning. They made it a 3-0 game in the top of the fourth when Joey Rapp and Edmond Sparks scored on unearned runs. But Santa Fe rallied with 2 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and then took the lead for good with 3 runs in the eighth inning. The Championship loss capped an unusal run for the Indians as they had two games during the tournament suspended and were forced to complete the games the following day. Tuesday night’s championship bout with Santa Fe was suspended in the fourth inning due to lightning. The game was concluded on Wednesday morning. The Indians opening game of the tournament was played last Friday night and was suspended in the fifth inning due to the outfield lights going off. Technicians were unable to get the lights fixed that evening and the game was resumed on Saturday morning. But even with all the suspended games, the Indians made a fine run in this tournament. They advance to the State Tournament as the Panhandle Conference runner up and had struggled during opening play of the conference schedule. But they caught fire toward the end of the conference season and that fire carried over into the State Tournament. Chipola began tournament play with a 12-10 win over Manatee. The game was tied at 1-1 when suspended on Friday night but the Indians came out fighting on Saturday morning and pushed their lead to 12-2 going into the final inning. Manatee mounted a furious rally to score 8 runs but the Indians held on for the win. Several Indians had big offensive days including Joey Rapp who went 3-4 with 2 home runs, 4 RBI and 4 runs scored. Edmond Sparks went 2-4 with a home run and 3 RBI. Dayne Read went 3-4 with a home run and 3 RBI. Patrick Corbin got the start and pitched well but the suspension of the game forced Duncan Midkiff to take the mound on Saturday morning and he got the win. The Indians returned to the field later on Saturday and downed Miami Dade, the number one team in the state, by a score of 7-5. Again the Indians jumped out to a big lead, 7-0, and then held on to withstand a furious late rally from the Sharks. Marc Bourgeios led the way going 3-4 and Jake Rogers went 2-4 with 3 RBI. Jordan Lucas got the win for Chipola, going 8 strong innings and striking out 6 Sharks. On Sunday the Indians fell to Santa Fe 8-2 but then bounced back on Monday to stay alive with a 7-3 win over Panhandle Conference rival Tallahassee. Chipola used a big fourth inning to break a 2-2 tie, plating five runs to take a 7-2 lead. Andy Fermin and Dustin Spruill homered to lead the Indians to the win and advance to the Semi-Finals on Tuesday morning. Midkiff came back to pitch and get the win for Chipola. The Semi-finals pitted Chipola against Palm Beach on Tuesday morning and the Indians nipped Palm Beach 4-3 in a close game. The game was tied at 1-1 and then 2-2 through the first six innings. Palm Beach took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh but Chipola countered with two runs in the top of the eighth to take a 4-3 lead. From there they hung on to win and advance to the Championship game against Santa Fe.