Eagles lose 13-9 slugfest with the Manatees

BRADENTON, Fla. (February 22, 2015) – In a high scoring affair the Tallahassee Community College Eagles found themselves on the wrong side of a 13-9 loss to the State College of Florida on Sunday afternoon.

The Eagles jumped on the board first in the top of the first inning.  Ethan Crout, leading off for the Eagles, got on base and after a throwing error he found himself on third.  Crout scored on a fielder's choice to the shortstop by Geremy Walton.

The Manatees answered back with a run of their own to tie the game at 1-1.

After State College of Florida took a 2-1 lead in the second inning the Eagles answered back in the third putting four runs on the board.  Crout scored for the second time off of a Walton triple to centerfield.  D.J. McKnight drove in Walton with a groundout to first base.  Tyler Atwell then came to the plate and hit a solo homerun over the left field fence.  Later in the inning Kyle Taddeo singled to right field to score Zach Featherstone, the inning's final run for the Eagles.

Tallahassee led 5-2 but the Manatees came back with a pair of runs in the third to trim the Eagles' lead to a run.

State College of Florida did its damage in the bottom of the fifth by scoring five runs to take a 9-5 lead over the Eagles.

The Eagles began to claw their way back into the game scoring a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.  Colby Sweat, Tyler Kinard, and McKnight accounted for those three runs.  Sweat's run came off of a solo homerun in the sixth, Kinard scored when Sweat hit into a fielder's choice in the seventh, and McKnight scored off of a Featherstone single on a fielder's choice in the eighth.

State College of Florida answered back with four more runs of its own in the eighth inning to put the game away.

The Eagles were only able to muster one run in the ninth to pull within four runs.

Taddeo scored the game's final run off of a Crout single to right field.

Taddeo was one of six players with multiple hits for the Eagles, who racked up 17 total despite the loss. He and McKnight had three each.

The Eagles used six different pitchers in today's outing against State College of Florida.

Shaun Herbert got the start for the Eagles but only went 1.1 innings.

Rion Murrah was credited with today's loss and is currently 2-1 this season.

The Eagles will be back in action on Tuesday, February 24 against Abraham Baldwin (Ga.) Agricultural College before returning home for an 11-game home stand that kicks off February 25 against Santa Fe College at 4 p.m.