PANAMA CITY — Ryan Koziol and Gulf Coast scratched one item off the long list with stunted exuberance on Saturday.
Koziol’s single to the fence brought in the deciding run and he secured his 10th save of the season in leading GC past Northwest Florida State 7-6 to clinch a state tournament berth. The state’s top-ranked Commodores will finish no worse than second after achieving their 13th Panhandle Conference victory and fourth against the Raiders in as many meetings.
The same can be said for second-place Chipola (34-9, 13-4), which defeated Pensacola State 10-2 on Saturday to secure the second of two guaranteed berths allotted to the conference. The Indians trail the Commodores (36-9, 13-3) by a ½ game and GC’s magic number to clinch the conference title is four. Chipola owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Koziol was one of five GC batters with two hits in the game that saw three ties and five lead changes. His liner to right field plated Dalton Kelley from second base in the bottom of the eighth. He retired the side in order in the ninth to close out the victory.
There were no grand gestures of excitement. The teams shook hands, GC tended to the Bill Frazier Field as it always had and the focus shifted to finishing the series with a win on Monday in Niceville. Sights also remained trained on winning a conference championship that likely will be determined in the final days.
GC’s magic number to clinch the state berth was one for a few days entering Friday’s rainout against Pensacola. GC (36-9, 13-3) had five games left entering the weekend and cinching this early is a bonus, Koziol said.
“Getting that win off our back will help us relax a bit,” Koziol said. “Now we can take it one at a time and go get that conference title.”
Koziol’s heroics were needed after NWF State’s Steven Jernigan blasted reliever Dalton Kelley’s first pitch over the scoreboard in right field to tie the game 6-6 in the top of the eighth. GC led 6-5 after RBIs by Christian Williams and Max Bartlett in the sixth. NWF State led briefly 5-4 in the top of the sixth when Ty Russ plated Jernigan with the Holmes County native’s third RBI of the game.
The sixth was GC starting pitcher Cameron Ragsdale’s last inning, as the right-hander gave up eight hits and five runs with six strikeouts and one walk. Brandon Pergantis, winning pitcher Kelley and Koziol each tossed an inning of relief and gave up a combined four hits.
NWF State losing pitcher Lucas Brown also lasted six innings and gave up 10 of GC’s 14 hits. The Commodores bunched five of those together over the opening innings and led 4-2 on Woody Edwards’ two-run single in the second.
Russ and Ryan Fucci each drove in a run to tie the game 4-4 in the fifth. Russ led third-place NWF State (26-15, 8-8) with four hits and he doubled in his first at-bat in the second. Jernigan was 2 for 4 and scored twice for the Raiders, who lead Tallahassee by 2½ games for third place and a spot in a tournament play-in contest.
Kelley, Bartlett, Edwards and Trevor Davis also had two hits. Davis’ second hit came in the eighth with two outs and Koziol quickly trotted back to the batters’ box after throwing in the bullpen before delivering his winning hit.
GC has single games against NWF State on Monday and Pensacola State on Tuesday and two versus Tallahassee on Wednesday and Friday to close out the Panhandle schedule. The state tournament is May 8-14 in Lakeland.
“We’ve been playing great baseball all year,” Koziol said. “We’ll keep riding our pitchers and hitters as far as we can.”
NWF State 020 021 010 — 6 12 2
Gulf Coast 220 002 01x — 7 14 1
Brown (L), Granat (7) and Halstead; Ragsdale, Pergantis (7), Kelley (8, W, 2-0), Koziol (9, S, 10) and Durham. 2B: NWF (TRuss), GC (Flair). HR: NWF (Jernigan). LOB: NWF 8, GC 8.