Raiders Fight Back to Win in Blowout Fashion

NICEVILLE, Fla. - Northwest Florida took the field today, only needing two wins to clinch a spot in the postseason. The nerves showed early as Gulf Coast came storming out to a 7-1 lead in the top of the 3rd inning. However, the Raiders never gave up and scored 16 unanswered runs and finishing the game in a 17-7 run rule game.

Blake Cavill woke up the Raiders bats in the bottom of the 4th with a lead off home run to cut the deficit to 7-2. An error by Gulf Coast, double by Cade Easterbrook, and a walk from Cayden Gaskin loaded the bases for Paul Winland. Winland took advantage of a hanging slider on a 1-1 count and flew one over the right field fence to make it a 7-6 game. Blake Cavill tied things up 3 batters later with a single up the middle, bringing in Tyler Lejeune. Kendrey Maduro hit a ball into the middle of the softball field in the next at-bat, giving the Raiders their first lead of the night 10-7.

In the next inning, Paul Winland hit his second home run of the night, a deep fly ball to right center to put the lead at 4. In the 6th inning, the Raiders put a lot of traffic on the base paths and continued to pound singles into the outfield with the Gulf Coast infield playing in and run ruled the Commodores 17-7 in 6 innings.

Gavin Black stepped in and had an amazing performance for the Raiders, finishing out the final 3 and 2/3 innings, allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 5. 

Northwest Florida improves to 27-16-1, 12-9 in the Panhandle. The Raiders will be back tomorrow to face Gulf Coast in the 2nd game of 4 this week.