Eagles roll past Santa Fe for fourth straight win

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (February 27, 2013) - FCSAA No. 4 Tallahassee Community College (14-3) won its fourth straight game on Wednesday, handing No. 7 Santa Fe College (11-6) an 11-4 defeat at Eagle Field.  

The win was only Tallahassee's second in its last eight meetings against its rival from Gainesville. 

The Eagles broke open a close game with a five-run sixth.   

Leading 5-4, Anthony Torres led off the inning with a single and moved into scoring position when Chad Mabini bunted his way on. After Clay Fenwick reached on an error to load the bases, Tallahassee plated five runs without the benefit of another hit.   

Consecutive walks to Trent Higginbothem and Matt Bahnick brought home the first two runs of the inning. Fenwick trotted home on a passed ball to push the Eagles' lead to four then Kevin Cruz and John Price, Jr., picked up RBIs on sac-flies to extend the margin to 10-4.   

The Eagles' sixth-inning outburst ended what had been a back-and-forth affair. 

Santa Fe collected four hits in its first at-bat against Tallahassee starter Cody Alling, including RBI-singles from Jonathan Camp and Jarred Mederos, to take a quick 2-0 lead. 

Aided by a pair of Saints' errors, Tallahassee got on the board in the second and knocked out Santa Fe starter J.T. Simpson in the process. Torres' one-out single scored James Abbatinozzi with the tying run and sent the Saints to their bullpen. Higginbothem drew a bases-loaded walk to score Cody Borup and give Tallahassee its first lead of the afternoon. 

The teams traded runs in the third and fourth innings, ending with Fenwick's go-ahead single that gave Tallahassee a 5-4 lead. 

Victor Cole (3-0) worked 3.2 innings in relief to earn the victory. He inherited a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the fourth, replacing Bradley Robbins. Cole got Mederos out on a sac-fly to center, though it scored Casey Scoggins to tie the game at 4-all, then struck out Colby Lusignan to end the scoring threat. 

Cole struck out five to lead a 13-K effort by the Tallahassee pitching staff. 

Eric Russell, the last of four Eagle pitchers, struck out four in just two innings of work. 

Offensively, Tallahassee was led by Torres, who was 4-for-6.  

The Eagles will host St. Johns River State College at 6 p.m. Thursday. Live stats and the Eagles' live, in-game blog will be available. 

Read a recap of Wednesday's live blog.