TAMPA, Fla. - The Northwest Florida State College Raiders punched their ticket to the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series with a 10-3 win over Chipola College on Sunday evening at Steinbrenner Field.
The win gave Northwest Florida State its first FCSAA Championship and first JUCO World Series berth since 2015 when the Raiders brought home the National Championship.
The Raiders won their first two tournament games in their final at-bat - an 8-7, walk-off victory over Florida SouthWestern State College in Friday's opening round game; then used a six-run eighth to score an 11-6, come-from-behind victory over Chipola in Saturday's winner's bracket matchup.
Chipola scored the final six runs to knock out top-seed Indian River State College, 8-3, earlier on Sunday, setting up a rematch with its longtime Panhandle Confernece rival.
Much like their first meeting in the tournament, Sunday's finale was nip-and-tuck most of the night.
Trailing 1-0, Chipola was on the brink of a big inning in the top of the third with the bases loaded and only one out when Edian Espinal sent a rocket to the left-center gap. What looked to be a potential bases-clearing hit was run down by left fielder Tyler Lejeune. Although a run scored on the sac-fly, the Raiders escaped further damage then plated two runs in the bottom half, all coming with two outs and nobody on.
After Chipola got a run back in the fifth, Northwest Florida State scored three in the sixth, one in the seventh and three more in the eighth when the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player Jaquae Stewart hit a towering home run to right-center, capping a six-RBI night.
Stewart was joined on the All-Tournament Team by teammates Chase Williams, Colby Jones, Alex Walsh, Qrey Lott and the Tournament's Most Outstanding Pitcher, Brock Tapper.
Chipola's Miguel Hugas, Austin Brown and J.P. Ortiz were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with Florida SouthWestern's Victor Figueroa and Justin Thomas and Indian River State's Vincent Samuel and Chris Knier, Indian River State.
Northwest Florida State's Doug Martin was named FCSAA Coach of the Year.