Box Score NICEVILLE – Polk State Baseball will enter Saturday facing elimination. The Eagles stood toe-to-toe with No. 6 Northwest Florida State College on Friday night, but the long ball was the difference as the Raiders pulled away late for a 12-4 victory in eight innings.
Through six innings, only Kendrey Maduro could figure out Polk State pitcher
Evan Koehler. To that point, the Raiders had managed just four hits. Three of them were Maduro home runs.
His solo shot got the scoring started in the second, but Polk State (33-24) took the lead with a pair of runs in the third.
Roberto Odor jumpstarted the offense with a single – the first hit of the night for the Eagles.
Kelsen Johnson followed with an RBI double to knot the score at 1 apiece. Back-to-back groundouts from
Jordan Thomas and
Damion Kenealy gave Polk State its first lead.
Maduro's two-run blast in the fourth put the second-seeded Raiders ahead for good, 3-2. He added a second solo blast in the sixth to push the lead to 4-2.
Things began to spiral downward for seventh-seeded Polk State in the seventh as Northwest Florida State College plated five runs. A hustle-double by Tyler LeJeune started the inning and ended Koehler's night. A three-run blast from Cade Sadler later in the inning served as the big blow.
"We made some mistakes to their seven-hole guy and he made us pay," Polk State Head Coach Al Corbeil said. "I'm proud of the way the guys battled back. We have to play a clean game and try to bounce back and get a win tomorrow."
Trailing 9-2, Polk State showed the fight that defines its program in the top of the eighth. Odor again got the rally started with a lead-off single.
He'd come around to score his second run of the night on Thomas' RBI double to right. After a solid Niceville Regional last season that included his only collegiate home run, Odor finished 2-for-3 on Friday with a pair of runs.
"Obviously I wanted to come back here," Odor said. "Remembering last year made me want to come back. It's a great atmosphere with a great feel."
Back-to-back singles by Kenealy and
Evan Wainman plated a run and ended the night of Northwest Florida starting pitcher Sam Strek. Bryon Rincones retired both Polk State hitters he faced to end the threat.
The Raiders put the game away with three runs in the eighth to complete the run-rule victory. Colby Jones' two-run triple highlighted the frame. Sadler his 2-for-5 night with an RBI double -- his fourth RBI of the game.
Despite taking the loss, Koehler gave another gritty effort on the mound, going six innings. He yielded five runs on five hits and four walks while striking out eight. In addition to Odor's solid night at the plate, Johnson and Thomas each finished with two hits, an RBI, and a run scored.
Capping Maduro's 4-for-4 night was a single that plated his fifth run in the seventh. Jones finished 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and two RBIs. Strek picked up the win on the mound, going 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits with four strikeouts.
After taking the first game of last season's Niceville Regional, Polk State dropped the final two, but not before it erased an 8-0 deficit to take the lead in the decisive third game. The Eagles will have to win in each of the next two days to keep their season alive. Saturday's scheduled start time is set for 2 p.m. ET.
"Knowing we've battled back here before lets us know it's possible," said Odor, a sophomore infielder. "We're not scared. We might not be loaded with big power bats, but we're scrappy and we play as a team. Anything is possible."
