The Santa Fe Saints lead nearly the entire game on Sunday afternoon against Palm Beach State College, but a late rally by the Panthers was enough to upend SF 8-7. The loss ends SF’s season. They finish with a 31-12 record.
The Saints struck first, plating two in the first inning, but Palm Beach countered, scoring two in the bottom half of the frame to tie it up at 2-2.
In the third SF scored two on a Tyler Kinney RBI single and a wild pitch to take a 4-2 lead.
Two innings later Santa Fe added to their lead, scoring two runs on RBI hits by Robbie Hanlon and Chandler Rodriguez to go ahead 6-3.
The two teams exchanged runs in the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth, but the big turning point in the game came when the Saints managed just one run when they had runners at first and third with nobody out. Palm Beach turned a double play to mitigate the damage and later capitalized for the win.
In the sixth inning the Panthers tied the game with three runs, and took the lead in the eighth on a RBI double to go ahead 8-7.
Down to their final three outs, Mike Castilla got on base with a hit, but it was quickly erased with a double play to end the game.
SF hit into three double plays and left 10 runners on base. For the tournament, they left 33 runners on base.
The Saints had 13 hits on the day for a .382 average. Hugo Valdes, Robbie Hanlon, Matt Allen, and Chandler Rodriguez had two hits each.
The FCSAA tournament is double elimination and every game can be seen live at www.psblive.com. For full tournament details, visit http://thefcsaasports.com/championships/fcsaa_baseball_tournament
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