TCC Softball rallies twice to sweep Chipola

MARIANNA, Fla. (April 4, 2014) – FCSAA No. 2/NJCAA No. 4 Tallahassee Community College picked up a pair of come-from-behind wins on Friday, defeating FCSAA No. 7 Chipola College, 4-2 and 6-3, in Panhandle Conference softball action. 

With the wins, the Eagles (31-8) put themselves into the record books, reaching the 15-1 mark in PC play for the first time ever. The 1998 squad made it to 14-1 before dropping game two of a doubleheader against North Florida Community College. 

More importantly, Tallahassee took a huge step towards its first Panhandle Conference softball championship since that same 1998 team captured the league crown 16 seasons ago. With eight games remaining, the Eagles lead Northwest Florida State College (9-7) by six games.  

Those two teams meet in Niceville on Tuesday, where the Eagles can lock up the title with a pair of victories. 

Chipola (28-16) is still mathematically alive, although the Indians now sit at 8-8, seven games back of the first-place Eagles. 

Game one was, for the most part, a pitcher's duel between Tallahassee's Ashley Dobson and Chipola's Jessica Elliott. Both pitchers went the distance and shut out their opponent in six of the seven innings. 

Dobson gave up both her runs on one pitch in the third inning – a two-run homer to Katie Harrison. 

Chipola carried the 2-0 lead to the fifth and Elliott, who allowed only one hit through the first four innings, was one strike away from ending the inning and stranding runners at first and second, but Marina Cobbs singled up the middle to score Shelby Manns and get the Eagles on the board. 

Cobbs, who was 2-for-3, had half of the Eagles' four hits. 

The next batter, Taesha DuBoise, followed suit with a single that plated Brenda Santana with the tying run. Danielle Patterson followed that with a go-ahead double to score both Cobbs and DuBoise. 

That quickly, Tallahassee led 4-2. 

After sitting down the Indians in order in the fifth, Dobson worked out of trouble in the final two innings, stranding the tying runs in both the sixth and seventh. She struck out seven en route to the win. 

The nightcap followed a strikingly similar script. 

Chipola led 2-0 and 3-2 only to see Tallahassee erase the lead twice, the second time for good. 

Down a run, the Eagles put two runs on the board in the fifth. 

DuBoise drew a leadoff walk to start the inning and advanced to second on a sac-bunt by Patterson. After a wild pitch moved DuBoise to third, she scored on Ashley Heath-Smith's double. 

Two batters later, Alexis Huss singled home Heath-Smith with the eventual winning run. 

The Eagles added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth to extend their lead to 6-3. 

Mariah Rivera went the distance in the circle to notch the win for Tallahassee. 

Offensively, the Eagles outhit the Indians in game two, 10-4. Te Reo Powhiri Matautia (2-for-4), Huss (2-for-3) and Brianna Murillo (2-for-4) had two hits each. 

After a 4-12 PC record in 2013, Tallahassee's incredible turnaround season is now an 11-game difference through the same number games. The 2014 season marks the first for an expanded 24-game league schedule. 

Friday's scores

Tallahassee 4, Chipola 2
Tallahassee 6, Chipola 3
Northwest Florida State 10, Gulf Coast State 2
Northwest Florida State 6, Gulf Coast State 5