Eagles rally but fall short at Pensacola State, win streak halted at 17

PENSACOLA, Fla. (March 15, 2014) – FCSAA No. 1/NJCAA No. 4 Tallahassee Community College had its 17-game winning streak snapped on Saturday, dropping a 6-5 decision to Pensacola State College in game two of the teams' Panhandle Conference series. 

Chipola College defeated Gulf Coast State College on Saturday to leave everyone at 1-1 in league play just two days into the conference season. Northwest Florida State College will open its PC slate on Wednesday. 

Trailing 6-0 through six innings, Tallahassee suddenly began to make things interesting. 

The Eagles scored two runs in the seventh and got even closer in the eighth.

Cody Borup's RBI-groundout scored D.J. McKnight to cut the Pirates' lead in half. With Quincy Nieporte still on third, the next batter, Christian Dicks, took Will Gerdes' payoff pitch over the right field fence for a two-run home run that pulled Tallahassee within a run. 

Tallahassee put the tying and go-ahead runs on with nobody out in the ninth but came up empty. 

After Bobby Rice was called for batters interference, resulting in the first out, McKnight hit a sinking liner to centerfield. Johnny Blue Craig, the runner at second, was doubled up after Patrick Maddox laid out to make the diving catch and threw back to second base to end the game and halt Tallahassee's second double-digit winning streak of the season. 

The Eagles' (29-6) last loss came to State College of Florida on February 22. 

Craig (2-for-2), Dicks (2-for-4) and Jonathan Burkett (2-for-3) all had multi-hit games for Tallahassee. 

Pensacola native Cody Alling took the loss for the Eagles. 

Tallahassee and Pensacola State will play the rubber game of their three-game series in Tallahassee at 5 p.m. Monday.