The #14 Chipola softball team punched its ticket to the FCSAA State/NJCAA South Atlantic District Tournament on Thursday with a 9-8 victory over #16 Northwest Florida. The Lady Indians will play in the first round of the State Tournament on Friday, May 6, at 6 PM CDT against #2 Florida SouthWestern State College (45-4). The tournament will be held May 6-9 at Boombah Soldiers Creek Park in Longwood, Florida. (Tournament Information)

Going into Thursday's conference playoff game, the Lady Indians had defeated the Raiders three of the four games the two teams had faced one another. Chipola's only loss came last Saturday when the Raiders hit a grand slam in the 6th and a three-run walk-off home run in the 7th to win 8-5. The 3-1 season record against the Raiders gave the Lady Indians a bye in the conference play-in game meaning Northwest Florida would need to beat Chipola twice on Thursday. 

With the cushion of only needing one win on Thursday, the Lady Indians took every punch the Raiders landed to come away with the hard-fought 9-8 victory. 

NWF took an early lead by getting three runs in the first inning. After shutting down the Raiders with 13 strikeouts and allowing only 2 hits just three days prior, Chipola starter Zayla McBurrows allowed three singles and walked two in the inning.

The Chipola offense picked up their veteran starter in the bottom half of the inning. Marley Sims, Jadyn Burney, and Janelle Martinez started the comeback with consecutive singles to load the bases. Back-to-back walks to Kinzie Nelson and Charity Bibbs pulled the Lady Indians to within one. With one out, Gabby Bess, who was making just her second start of the season due to an injury, doubled to clear the bases and put Chipola up 5-3 after the first inning.

The Raiders came right back in the top of the second with a lead off double by nine-hole hitter, Kassidy Hood. With one out, Sydney Stewart hit one over the ivy in right centerfield to even the score, 5-5.

Neither team would get a baserunner until the fourth when Hood walked to lead off the inning. Coach Kelly Brookins went to her deep bullpen and put freshman Landyn McAnnally in the circle as the NWF lineup turned over for the third time.

"This was our fourth game against Northwest Florida in less than a week and this was the third game they were seeing Zayla (McBurrows)," said Coach Brookins. "I felt like with the top of the lineup coming up, it was a good time for a change."

Although McAnnally allowed a hit to the first batter and a walk with one out, a strikeout of NWF clean-up batter Gabrielle Fischetti for the second out gave the Lady Indians a chance to get out of the jam. The next Raiders' hitter, Layla Thompson, hit a chopper up the middle that Marley Sims fielded clean but the throw was not in time allowing the runner from third to score. Since they were two outs, the runner at second was also able to score on the play to give NWF a 7-5 lead.

Once again facing a two-run deficit, the Lady Indians got a pair of big hits to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Bess singled into a centerfield then scored on a triple from Hannah Atwood to cut the Raiders' lead to 7-6. With one out, Marley Sims singled to bring in Atwood and tie the game. Jadyn Burney followed Sims with a bunt single to put runners on first and second then each moved up a base on Janelle Martinez ground out. With two outs, Kinzie Nelson doubled just out of reach of the NWF leftfielder to give Chipola a 9-7 lead.

After a Chipola error gave the Raiders a base runner to start the fifth inning, McAnnally retired the next six batters she faced to preserve the two-run lead heading into the seventh.

Northwest Florida refused to go down quietly. After the first two hitters in the seventh doubled and tripled, the Raiders had closed the game to within one and had the tying run on third base with no outs.

McAnnally retired the next two batters on infield pop ups and got the final out on a fly ball to left field, giving the Lady Indians their 39th win of the season.

"Landyn really stepped for us today," said Brookins. "She had not pitched since giving up the walk-off home run on Saturday, and in the seventh inning, she had to face the same batter with one out and a runner on third. Getting her to pop up to (catcher) Janelle (Martinez) was the biggest out of the game."

Coach Brookins and her defending State Champion Lady Indians will now head to Longwood to face the defending National Champions, Florida SouthWestern. "This is a great opportunity for the girls and we are excited to head back to the State Tournament to defend our title. With only five players returning from last season, this is a great accomplishment but we certainly want to reach our goal of playing in Yuma for the National Championship."

Game Notes

• Marley Sims was 3-4 with an RBI to move her season average to .425
• Jadyn Burney, Gabby Bess, and Hannah Atwood each had two hits in the game.
• The Lady Indians won the season series with NOrthwest Florida, 4-1.
• This will be the Lady Indians' sixteenth consecutive appearance at the State Tournament. (There was no tournament held in 2020 due to COVID.)