Eagles get the final word, beat No. 1 Central Florida

VERO BEACH, Fla. (May 2, 2015) – FCSAA No. 7 Tallahassee Community College capped a remarkable Saturday at the NJCAA District/FCSAA State Softball Tournament with a 5-1 win over FCSAA No. 1/NJCAA No. 2 College of Central Florida. 

Tallahassee won three elimination games over a span of more than 12 hours on Saturday, knocking out Northwest Florida State College and State College of Florida prior to eliminating the Patriots, who had defeated the Eagles in their three previous meetings this season, including Friday's 7-2 win in the opening round of the tournament. 

The Eagles (33-16) have won four straight elimination games since Friday's loss to Central Florida. Meanwhile, the Patriots, who lost to Chipola College earlier on Saturday, ended its season at 53-9. 

Tallahassee is now just two wins from a return trip to the NJCAA Division I Softball Championship in St. George, Utah. The Eagles will play FCSAA No. 2/NJCAA No. 4 Seminole State College at 10 a.m. Sunday. The winner moves into the 12 p.m. loser's bracket final against Miami Dade College, with the winner advancing to Utah, as well as the 2 p.m. state championship game against Chipola, who punched its ticket to the national tournament on Saturday. 

Freshman pitcher Alexandra Cook delivered, arguably, her best performance of the season, limiting the Patriots' high-powered offense to just three hits. Central Florida scored its only run in the sixth but by that time Tallahassee had built a 4-0 lead. 

Central Florida was unable to take advantage of four Tallahassee errors and three walks by the Eagle southpaw. Cook helped her cause with seven strikeouts and repeatedly came up with the big out when she needed it most. 

Tallahassee drew first blood in the second. 

Taylor Scher led off the inning with a single and came all the way around to score on Jaylene Pryor's double to the left field corner. After Pryor advanced to third, she scored on a passed ball give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. 

Patience at the plate paid big dividends for the Eagles, particularly in the third. Back-to-back walks to Brianna Tourtillott and Kiara Johnson started the inning and, after a sac-bunt by Kayla Boucher, Scher walked to load the bases. 

After a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Shelby Manns fisted one past the pitcher and between first and second for an infield single, scoring Tourtillott. Brooke Marendino followed with a run-scoring single to plate Johnson and the Eagles led 4-0. 

Central Florida got on the board in the sixth and had runners at second and third with two outs when Mariah Wise hit a slow bouncer back to Cook and the bang-bang play at first went the Eagles' way to end the threat. 

Tallahassee got the run back in its half of the sixth. 

Marendino drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. She stole third and when the throw sailed over the third baseman's head, Marendino raced home to give the Eagles a 5-1 lead. 

All of Sunday's games can be seen on NJCAA TV.