#TCCBaseball runs win streak to seven

MARIANNA, Fla. (April 9, 2018) – Tallahassee Community College won its seventh straight game on Monday, defeating Chipola College, 4-1, in game one of a brief two-game series with the Indians. 

Chipola (33-10, 13-4) continues to sit atop the Panhandle Conference standings, but the surging Eagles (32-14, 10-7) are now within three games and have an opportunity to make things really interesting at Eagle Field on Wednesday when the teams play for the final time in the regular season. 

More importantly for the Eagles, they strengthened their grip on second place in the PC standings. Coupled with Pensacola State College's win over Gulf Coast State College, Tallahassee now has a three-game lead on both the Pirates (7-10) and Commodores (7-10) with seven games to play. 

The Eagles have relied on dominant pitching during their win streak. Another solid effort on Monday sent Tallahassee to its first win at Chipola since 2014, snapping an 11-game losing streak on the Indians' home field. 

Justin Sorokowski (3-0) scattered eight hits over six innings but didn't walk a batter and struck out seven to keep the Indians at bay. Derick Garcia struck out four in two innings to give the Eagles' their 21^st double-digit strikeout game of the season. 

Clinging to a 2-0 lead, Tallahassee got some insurance in the ninth when Tanner Thomas doubled home Mason Miller and Taylor Lomack to hand closer Jake Kinney a four-run cushion. 

Chipola scored a run against Kinney in the ninth to break up the Eagles' shutout bid but he retired Francisco Urbaez on a fly out to left to end the game. 

Despite allowing ten hits to a potent Chipola lineup, the overall numbers are nothing short of impressive when measuring just how good the Eagles' pitching has been over the last seven games. 

Try a 1.74 ERA and three or fewer runs allowed in each game. How about just 42 hits – and only five extra-base hits – in 57 innings. Or 12 walks compared to 61 strikeouts to increase its season total to an NJCAA-best 433. 

So when Tallahassee jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Monday, head coach Mike McLeod had to like his team's chances. 

Two walks, a passed ball and a two-out error scored Thomas in the top of the first. He led off the third with a solo homer and went 2-for-4 with three RBI. 

Luke Ard (2-for-5) and Mason Miller (2-for-4) also had multiple-hit games for Tallahassee. 

Wednesday's game is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.