Eagles fall but clinch share of PC title

MARIANNA, Fla. (April 12, 2013) - Top-ranked Tallahassee Community College had its ten-game winning streak snapped on Friday afternoon in a 6-4 loss to arch-rival Chipola College.

Shortly after the final out, Tallahassee learned that Northwest Florida State College had rallied for a 4-3 win over Gulf Coast State College, thus giving the Eagles (39-6, 13-2) a share of the Panhandle Conference Championship.

Tallahassee will have the opportunity to win the title outright when it hosts Chipola at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The Eagles handed a 4-3 lead to reliever Ethan Bornstein, who entered in the sixth after five innings of work from starter Jared Stanley.

Bornstein made quick work of the Indians in the sixth but ran into trouble an inning later.

Christian Correa, who earlier hit a two-run homer off Stanley, started the seventh with a single to center, and Daniel Mars walked to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Following a sac-bunt, Bornstein uncorked a wild pitch to plate Correa to knot the game at 4-all. Josh Barber then singled to right-center to bring home Mars with what proved to be the winning run.

The Indians added an insurance run in the eighth.

Tallahassee, who has made a habit out of coming from behind, brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after a two-out double by Kevin Cruz extended the game, but Anthony Torres grounded out to second base to end the game.

Bornstein (2-1) took the loss for Tallahassee while Michael Mader went seven innings to earn the win for Chipola.

Tallahassee went to work quickly in the first.

After Torres led off the game with a single, Chad Mabini reached on a fielders' choice - but Torres advanced to third when second baseman Chase Nyman couldn't come up with the throw from third baseman Bert Givens.

Clay Fenwick hit into a double-play but Torres scored from third to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 2-1 after Correa's second-inning homer, the Eagles put two runs on the board in the fourth.

Trent Higginbothem doubled home Fenwick from first to even the score at 2-all. Higginbothem later scored on Tyler York's single.

Torres led off the fifth with a solo homer to extend Tallahassee's lead to 4-2.

Chipola got one of the runs back in the fifth on Barber's RBI-single.

Torres went 2-for-5 and scored twice to lead Tallahassee. Fenwick and Higginbothem both went 1-for-4 and drove in a run.