Raider Baseball Finishes Runner-Up in Region 8
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northwest Florida State College | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 2 |
|
College of Central Florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 7 | 8 | 0 |
LAKELAND, Fla. - Northwest Florida's journey to Grand Junction came up just a little short as the Raiders fell to College of Central Florida in the State Championship game 7-2. After a first round loss to the Patriots on Friday evening, the Raiders battled out of the loser's bracket to defeat State College of Florida 8-7 on Saturday and then beat Miami Dade 8-7 on Sunday afternoon. With just the Raiders and Patriots left and a ticket to Grand Junction on the line, Northwest Florida had to win two games against the #2 team in the country.
Northwest Florida got the first run on the board on a Kendrey Maduro ground out to 2nd base in the 3rd inning to bring in Colby Jones. However, College of Central Florida put up 3 of their own in the 4th inning to take a 3-1 lead. Paul Winland's double in the top of the 5th inning to bring in Blake Cavill gave the Raiders some hope until the Patriots scored another 3 runs in the bottom half to take a 6-2 lead.
The Raiders finished the year 34-19-1 and runner-up in the FCSAA Region 8, the first time Northwest Florida finished in the top 2 in the region since 2019.