Eagles drop pair at Northwest Florida State

NICEVILLE, Fla. (April 8, 2014) – The race for the Panhandle Conference Softball Championship will extend to Thursday for Tallahassee Community College after Northwest Florida State College swept the Eagles on Tuesday, winning 2-1 and 2-0. 

The Eagles (31-10) still lead the PC standings at 15-3, four games ahead of Northwest Florida State (11-7) with six games remaining. Idle Chipola College (8-8) is still alive for the conference championship as well. 

Tallahassee will host Pensacola State College on Thursday (4/6 p.m.) with a chance to claim the championship on its home field. 

Northwest Florida State scored two runs in its last at-bat to grab a 2-1 win in the opener, snapping an 11-game winning streak for the Eagles. 

Game one was dominated by the pitchers, as Tallahassee's Ashley Dobson and Northwest Florida State's Maude McCourry battled to a scoreless tie through five innings. 

Finally, Tallahassee broke through in the sixth. 

A one-out single by Brenda Santana was followed by a walk to Brianna Murillo. After Karley Yeager lined out to third for the second out, Marina Cobbs singled to center, scoring Dominique Davis, who was running for Santana, from second. 

Pitching with a 1-0 lead, Dobson retired the first two batters she faced in the home half of the sixth, but Kaisey Carson doubled to keep the inning alive for the Raiders and Jennifer Phillips matched her to knot the game at 1-all. Adaria Dixon followed with a single to score Phillips with what proved to be the winning run. 

McCourry retired Tallahassee in order in the seventh to end the game. 

Cobbs, Alexis Huss and Brenda Santana each went 2-for-3 to pace Tallahassee offensively. 

Dobson pitched well in defeat, scattering eight hits over six innings and allowing only the two sixth inning runs. 

In the nightcap, Mariah Rivera suffered her first loss of the conference season in a 2-0 defeat. 

After giving up a pair of first-inning runs, Rivera shut out the Raiders over the final five innings. She scattered five hits and walked just two in the complete-game effort. 

The Raiders' Haley Goodson gave up six hits en route to the shutout, the first against Tallahassee this season. 

Danielle Patterson went 2-for-3 for Tallahassee.