Indians Face Final Conference Series Against Raiders

By Clint Cox

The Chipola Indians baseball squad took two out of three games last week in their series against Panhandle Conference Champion Gulf Coast. That allowed the Indians to maintain sole possession of second place while they have a six day break from conference play this week. They return to the field this Saturday in Niceville to take on Northwest Florida State College in their final conference series of the 2010 season. Chipola currently controls their own destiny in regards to making the state tournament. If they win all three upcoming games against the Raiders they will head to Lakeland in two weeks. The Raiders and Pirates of Pensacola are doing battle this week and the outcome of that series will have an impact on what Chipola needs to do should they not sweep the upcoming series with the Raiders. Pensacola is also trying to stay in the hunt but they will close out the season with a three game series with Gulf Coast.

The series with conference front runner Gulf Coast was a wild one, with every game going right down to the final at bats. It began with perhaps the wildest of them all on last Wednesday when Chipola won 14-13. The Indians trailed big early on as Gulf Coast led 7-1 after 2 ½ innings of play. But Chipola narrowed the gap with four runs in the third inning. But Gulf Coast came back with more runs and led 13-5 after six innings. Chipola rallied with five runs in the seventh, then tied the game at 13-13 in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the tenth inning. Marianna’s Tyler Wilson came off the bench with a big pinch hit late in the game to score two runs. Eric Sauls was 4-7 with three RBI and Michael Revell was 2-5 with three RBI and a home run. Duncan Midkiff got the win on the mound for the Indians.

Down in Panama City on Friday it was Chipola getting out to the early lead and then hanging on for a 10-9 win. Chipola led 6-2 early and held a 10-5 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. Gulf Coast got a grand slam home run to pull within one run but the Indians got a break on a grounder up the middle to force the final out of the game. Aaron Etchison was 2-5 with four RBI and a home run. Sauls, Andy Fermin and Cody Martin also homered for the Indians.

The final game of the series was on Saturday in Marianna and even though the Indians got a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth from Sauls, the Commodores avoided the clean sweep with a 4-3 win. Chipola held a 2-1 lead early but the Commodores plated runs in three straight innings to take a 4-2 lead. Blake Newalu was 2-5 on the day with two RBIs to lead Chipola.

Chipola is currently 11-10 in conference play and 24-21overall. Saturday’s game in Niceville will be at 1 pm and will be followed by a home game on Monday at 5 pm and another road game in Niceville on Wednesday at 5 pm.