#8 Indians defeat #15 Chatt Valley, 6-5, in extra innings
Indians do not allow a base runner in the final four innings to prevail over the Pirates.
It took extra innings but the #8 Chipola baseball team (#1 FSCAA rankings) came away with a win against #15 Chattahoochee Valley Community College on Tuesday, in a game played at Wallace Community College in Dothan, Alabama.
The Indians outlasted the Pirates when Dylan Goldstein scored on a wild pitch in the eleventh inning to take the 6-5 walk-off win.
Chipola took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Matthew Garcia led off the game with his second home run of the season.
The Pirates would even the score in the fourth with a two-out hit but Chipola would answer with a run of it's own. Dylan Goldstein scored on Jozsef Rohrbacher's fifteenth RBI of the season to put the Indians up 2-1.
In the fifth, both teams pushed across two runs with help from their opponent. The Pirates took advantage of a two out error to plate two in the top half of the inning. The Indians would answer back after they loaded the bases on a dropped third strike and two walks with no outs. With one out, Dylan Goldstein singled to left field to score Matthew Garcia and Cameron Gray and make the score 4-3 after five. The RBIs were Goldstein's seventeenth and eighteenth of the season.
After the Indians loaded the bases in the sixth on a Jozsef Rohrbacher double, Zac Rice single, and a walk to Garcia with no outs, Cameron Gray walked to put Chipola up 5-3. The Indians weren't able to push another run across as the next three hitters went down in order.
In the top of the seventh, the Pirates tied the game courtesy of a pair of walks, a single, and a balk. With the go ahead run on second and two outs, Michael Esposito entered the game on the mound to get the last out of the inning. Esposito struck out the side in the eighth.
Cedric De Grandpre relieved Esposito on the mound in the ninth and did not allow a baserunner in three innings of work to pick up his second win of the season.
In the bottom of the eleventh, Dylan Goldstein singled and Cesar Franco walked to lead off the inning. Goldstein and Franco moved up a base on David Castillo's sacrifice bunt. With Jozsef Rohrbacher at the plate, a wild pitch on a 1-0 count, scored Goldstein to give the Indians their 29th win of the season.
Two Chipola batters had a multi-hit game. Matthew Garcia was 2-for-5 with a solo home run. Dylan Goldstein was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI.
Andrew Baker started on the mound for the Indians. Over 3.1 innings, Baker gave up one run on three hits and walked one. He pushed his season total strikeouts to 76 by striking our 8 Pirates' hitters.
The Indians will have a week off before returning to conference play at Northwest Florida State College on Tuesday, April 6.