Baseball Punches Ticket to Lakeland
NICEVILLE, Fla. - Northwest Florida Raider baseball team won in dramatic fashion in the best-of-3 series vs. Polk State on the last at-bat in Game 3. The Raiders were down 11-10 in the 9th inning when a single by Colby Jones brought in pinch runner Jack O'Brien to tie the game at 11. With Tyler Lejeune on 2nd and Jones at 1st, Blake Cavill stepped up to the plate with 2 outs. Cavill sent a 3-2 fastball into the water tower in right field, putting the Raiders on top 14-11 to punch their ticket to the Final 4 down in Lakeland, Florida.
After losing game 1 5-3, the Raiders offense got rolling as they scored 14 runs in each of the next 2 games. Blake Cavill lead the way with 8 hits in 3 games, including the 3-run walk off home run. However, the walk-off home run would not have happened without clutch hitting from Colby Jones, who hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to make it a 2 run game and then brought in the game-tying run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. Jones finished the series 5-14 with 2 HRs and 5 RBIs.
The Raiders will be heading down to Lakeland this weekend, May 12-15, looking to punch their ticket to Grand Junction for the first time since 2015, when the Raiders were crowned National Champions. Northwest Florida will be taking on Central Florida in the first round of the tournament on Friday, May 12 at 5:00 PM.