Elliot, Eagles stave off elimination against NWF State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (April 22, 2014) – With his team's season on the line, Tallahassee Community College head baseball coach Mike McLeod handed the ball to Logan Elliot and the freshman right-hander responded in a big way, tossing a complete-game six-hitter in the Eagles' 9-2 win over Northwest Florida State College on Tuesday afternoon. 

Elliot, making his first start of the season after 20 appearances in relief, needed only 109 pitches to win his sixth game of the season in as many decisions. He allowed only six hits and one walk while striking out six. 

In the short term, Tallahassee (35-16) avoided elimination from postseason contention with the win in the rubber game of the five-game season series with Northwest Florida State. By Friday evening, the victory could prove to be enormous. 

The Eagles (7-11 PC) won the season series with the Raiders (9-9), three games to two, and, thus, secured the tie-breaker while pulling within two games of Northwest Florida State with two to play for third-place and the Panhandle Conference wild card. 

Tallahassee still has plenty of work to do in order for the tie-breaker to come into play – it must sweep a home-and-home series against Panhandle Conference leader Gulf Coast State College on Wednesday and Friday – and even then, it may not be enough. That's because in addition to winning their final two games, the Eagles need Northwest Florida State to drop its final two games to Chipola College, who trails Gulf Coast State by one game in the race for the Panhandle Conference championship. 

But the only way for Wednesday's 5 p.m. game against the Commodores to mean anything for Tallahassee was to take care of business on Tuesday. 

Northwest Florida State got on the board first, scoring a pair of unearned runs in the third, but Tallahassee answered in the bottom half on one swing, tying the game on Johnny Blue Craig's second home run of the season. 

Over the next five innings, Elliot faced only one batter over the minimum – Steven Jernigan singled with two outs in the sixth. Then, finally, in the bottom of the sixth, Tallahassee's offense woke up. 

Following a leadoff walk to Christian Dicks, Ryne Willard bunted his way on then Quincy Nieporte took James Garant's first pitch over the left field wall for a three-run homer to give the Eagles a 5-2 lead. 

Garant, who took the loss for Northwest Florida State, was charged with eight hits and five runs (all earned) in five-plus innings of work. 

Tallahassee added four runs against four different Raider relievers to put the game away. 

Dicks singled home Craig in the seventh to extend Tallahassee's lead to 6-2. The Eagles added three insurance runs in the eighth – all after the Raiders' Jeremy McKinney retired the first two batters. 

With two runners on, Robert Henderson doubled just over the outstretched arms of left fielder Jack Crittenberger to score Cody Borup and Bobby Rice. One batter later, Jonathan Burkett singled home Henderson to give Tallahassee a 9-2 lead. 

Every Eagle in the batting order reached base – all but Rice collected a hit and everyone but D.J. McKnight scored a run. 

Craig (2-for-5), Willard (2-for-4), McKnight (2-for-4), Henderson (2-for-4) and Burkett (2-for-4) all had multi-hit games for Tallahassee.

Craig scored twice and drove in two. Henderson drove in two and Quincy Nieporte had three RBI, going 1-for-4.