#TCCBaseball rallies in the 9th to defeat Pensacola State

PENSACOLA, Fla. (April 8, 2016) – Two swings of the bat may have saved Tallahassee Community College's baseball season on Friday night.

Trailing host Pensacola State College 10-6 in the top of the ninth, Bryan Scheker's pinch-hit grand slam tied the game, and Bret Maxwell's two-run homer scored the go-ahead runs in the Eagles' wild 13-10 win.

Tallahassee added a seventh run on a two-out error to cap its ninth-inning rally, and Thomas Nicoll (5-0) closed the door in the bottom half, capping a scoreless 2.2 innings of work in relief.

The win improved Tallahassee (30-15) to 4-9 in Panhandle Conference play, one-half game behind idle Northwest Florida State College (4-8), and clinched the season series with Pensacola State (19-23, 2-11).

Tallahassee hosts Pensacola State at 3 p.m. Saturday in the teams' final meeting of 2016 and can pull into a virtual tie alongside Northwest Florida State with a win.

The Eagles sent 12 batters to the plate in the ninth and did all of its damage after Kyle Cavanaugh popped out to the catcher to lead off the inning.

Ethan Crout walked, Deyvid Silva singled and Myron Mebane was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Then, Scheker, called upon as a pinch-hitter for Manny Chavarria, who homered earlier in the game, drilled Devan Harriman's 1-2 pitch over the left field fence to tie the game.

Malik Jones replaced Harriman and experienced a similar fate. He retired the first batter he faced, Mac Wilson, but Josh Nothdorft's two-out single kept the inning alive for Maxwell.

After being robbed of a go-ahead home run in Wednesday's loss to Northwest Florida State, Maxwell wasn't denied a second time. He took Jones' first pitch over the left field fence to give the Eagles a 12-10 lead. Following a walk to Zach Featherstone, Cavanaugh reached base on third baseman Miles Fore's throw and Featherstone came all the way around to score.

Cavanaugh was one of three Tallahassee players with three hits. He went 3-for-6 and drove in three runs. Nothdorft was also 3-for-6, and Wilson was 3-for-5.

Tallahassee jumped out to a 5-1 lead for starter Skylar Arias. After scoring a run in the first, Chavarria led off the second inning with a home run, part of a three-run inning. Cavanaugh's fourth-inning single score Maxwell.

Pensacola State knocked out Arias in the fourth, scoring six runs to grab a 7-5 lead. The teams swapped runs in the fifth and the Pirates plated two more in the seventh against reliever Ryan Terry to take a 10-6 lead.