TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (TCC Athletics) — Tallahassee Community College's baseball team welcomed longtime rival Shelton (Ala.) State Community College to Eagle Field on Thursday and the teams opened a three-game series by splitting a doubleheader.
Tallahassee rallied for a 4-3, come-from-behind victory in game one while Shelton State claimed a 5-1 win in the nightcap.
Tallahassee is now 6-5 on the season while Shelton State is 3-1.
In the opener, Tallahassee manufactured a run in its first at-bat to take the early lead.
Trent Jeffcoat led off the inning with a single then scooted all the way to third on an errant pickoff attempt by Shelton State pitcher Garrett McMillan. Spencer Hanson's RBI-groundout scored Jeffcoat.
After that, the Bucs took leads of 2-1 and 3-2 before the Eagles rallied in the bottom of the sixth.
With one out, Orlando Adams reached base when he was hit by a pitch, and pinch runner Nick Niewulis moved into scoring position on Andrew Fernandez' sac-bunt. After Brendan Power drew a two-out walk to keep the inning alive, Bryson Kirksey roped a double over the head of right fielder Nick Ragsdale.
Niewulis scored easily from second and, with two outs, Power raced all the way around from first to put the Eagles on top, 4-3.
In the top of the seventh, Ragsdale was hit by a Tanner Martin pitch to lead off the inning and moved into scoring position on a sac-bunt. Carlos Rodriguez replaced Martin and struck out the next two batters to pick up his second save and give Martin (1-1) his first victory of the season.
In the nightcap, Shelton State scored two runs in the third and never trailed in the 5-1 win.
Trailing 3-0, Tallahassee got on the board in the fifth when Julian Barcelo scored on Jeffcoat's sac-fly to deep left-center, but the Bucs took advantage of a pair of Eagle errors in their ensuing at-bat to add two runs to their lead.
Dilan Lawson (0-3) started and took the loss for Tallahassee.
Stan King, Josh Gray and Fernandez had the Eagles' three hits in game two.
Tallahassee and Shelton State will play the rubber game of the series at noon Friday.
