Chipola Baseball Opens Conference Play

By Clint Cox
The Chipola Indians baseball squad got off to a rough start in the 2010 Panhandle Conference season as they dropped their opening game in a 6-0 road loss to Pensacola on Monday. With the loss the Indians fell to 13-12 overall and 0-1 in conference play. The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning and then added three more in the bottom of the fifth inning. One more run was added in the eight to seal the victory for the home team. The Indian bats never got going as they could only muster three hits on the day and those came from LeVon Washington, Michael Revell and Aaron Etchison. Austin Wright took the loss on the mound for the Indians as he went five innings and gave up two runs on five hits and struck out five Pirates.

The Indians were slated to have a rematch against the Pirates on Wednesday if the weather permitted. Results of that game, if played, were not available at press time. Game three of this series is scheduled for Friday in Pensacola. The Indians follow that series up with a three game series against Tallahassee with game one in Marianna on Saturday at 1 pm. Game two is in Tallahassee on Monday and Game three is back in Marianna on Wednesday at 5 pm.

Chipola was coming off a weekend series against Gordon College in which they captured two out of three games at home. Last Friday they fell 5-4 but then fought back on Saturday to get two wins. They won game one on Saturday by a score of 3-2 and then won big in game two on the day with a 16-3 victory.

As they head into conference play the Indians are led offensively by Eric Sauls (.438 33 RBI & 5 HR); Blake Newalu (.393 11 RBI) and Cody Martin (.379 23 RBI & 4 HR).