The College of Central Florida Patriots (45-14) secured a spot in the FCSAA/NJCAA South Atlantic District Tournament Championship game after defeating the Indian River State College Pioneers 15-5 in eight innings Friday evening at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.
CF fell behind early when the Pioneers came out swinging against the FCSAA State Pitcher of the Year, Ben Chestnutt. Indian River slashed seven hits, all singles off of Chestnutt and built a 3-1 lead in the second inning. With the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning the Pats went to Landon Ginn to stop the rally. Ginn threw one pitch and enticed an easy groundout to second base. The Pats made it a 3-2 game after a Caleb Cali triple and a Vic Castillo sacrifice fly. With Ginn holding down the Indian River offense, the Pats went to work scoring four runs in the fourth inning and five runs in the fifth inning.
In the fourth inning the Pats tied the game at 3 apiece on a bases loaded double play but weren't done yet in the inning. Ginn then singled home David Pereira to give CF the lead 4-3 and Cali followed with his 16th home run of the season to deep left field to push the lead to 6-3. In the fifth inning the Pats continued the onslaught with two hit by pitches, a Jackson Taylor bunt single, a Spencer Stephens two run single and a Kevin Kilpatrick home run (9th) to make it an 11-3 CF lead. Kilpatrick singled home Pereira in the seventh inning to push the lead to 12-5, but the single also broke the CF school record for most base hits in a single season with 93 hits. The Central Florida Offense scored thier 15 runs on 12 hits, 7 walks, and 3 hit by pitches.
Ginn earned the win and improved to 9-1 on the season by tossing 6.1 innings in relief allowing only four hits, two runs and striking out seven. The Pats offense was led by Kilpatrick (3 hits, HR, 5 RBI), Cali (3 hits, 3 runs, 3B, HR, 2 RBI), Taylor (2-3, 2 runs, RBI), and Stephens (1-2, 2 RBI). The 45 wins for the Pats also is a school record for wins in a season.
The Patriots will play Saturday evening at 5:00 PM against the winner of the 1:00 PM game which pits Miami-Dade College (37-18-1) against Indian River State College (33-18). A CF win will send the Pats to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado and a loss forces another game on Sunday which would be a winner take all contest.