Box Score Box Score

Niceville, FL – After losing 10 straight games to some of the toughest teams in the NJCAA, GRCC's Raider baseball team pulled out all the stops in route to their first win of the season, 11-9, over the NJCAA's Division 1 ,#1 ranked  defending National Champion Northwest Florida State College.

GRCC led Northwest's Raiders 10-3 after 7 innings.   In the 8^th GRCC's Jalen Cox hit a fly to center field to score will Harris for GRCC's last run of the game.  Down, but not out, Northwest poured on 6 runs in the bottom of the 8^th to bring the score to within 2 before Ean Walda entered to slow the momentum and finish the contest with his first save of the season and the Raiders first win as both teams failed to score again in the 9^th.

GRCC's Sam Traver picked up his first win of the season to improve to 1-1 pitching 7 innings allowing 8 hits with 3 earned runs and 3 walks while striking out two batters.

Chris Nelson saw five batters in the 8^th inning coming in for Traver, but was quickly replaced by Shane Odzark after a rough start allowing two walks, a double and a home  run.  Odzark faced four batters in the 8^th allowing two walks, one hit and two earned runs before Ean Walda entered to close the inning.

Ean Walda picked up a save after 1.2 innings where he allowed no hits or runs with one walk and three strike outs.

Offensively GRCC's Matt Milbourne led the Raiders with three hits going 3-for-6 while scoring run runs with 3 RBI.

Will Harris went 2-for-4 with 1 run and 1 RBI.  Devin Husted also hit 2-for-4 with 1 RBI and two runs scored.  Jalen Cox was 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI.  Brenden Johnson had just one hit in six at-bats but made it count with two RBI.

Also recording hits for the Raiders were Dalton Phillips, Sterling Brinker and Chase Huntey.

The Northwest Raiders won't have a chance at redemption as the coaches decided to play one nine inning game rather than the two seven inning games as scheduled.

GRCC returns home today, a little battered after taking 10 losses, but feeling the wind at their backs after downing the best of the best in the NJCAA before heading north.

The Raiders will have a week to recover from an intense week of baseball before facing Sinclair Community College on March 19^th.  MCCAA play commences on April 2^nd as GRCC hosts Macomb Community College for a double header starting at 1PM at Belknap Park.