Indians/Eagles highlights big weekend in Panhandle

By Dustin Kent

Published: April 3, 2008

The Chipola Indians will go for their seventh Panhandle Conference win in the last eight games Friday when they host the Tallahassee Eagles at 5 p.m. at Chipola Field.

Chipola, which split last weekend’s series with North Florida, sits in sole possession of second place in the league standings at 7-3, one game behind Pensacola at 8-2.

TCC is 5-5 in Panhandle play, just a half game behind North Florida for third place and two games back of Chipola.

The Eagles can catch the Indians in the standings with wins today and Saturday in Tallahassee, while North Florida can catch PJC in the loss column with a pair of wins in its weekend series with the Pirates.

All of this means that the Panhandle standings could look a lot different after this weekend than they did before.

“It’s definitely a big weekend for us and the league,” Chipola coach Jeff Johnson said Thursday. “It’s basically a four-team race. TCC can get right back in the middle if they beat us twice and we can put them in a tough situation if we beat them.
“Hopefully, we can start doing some of the little things we haven’t been doing and play with some confidence and passion.”

Kyle Regnault will most likely get the start for the Indians Friday, while Matt Jackson is the probably Saturday starter.

Chipola’s pitching staff took a major hit last weekend when starter Ryan Chaffee suffered a broken foot in the team’s March 28 victory over North Florida in Madison.

The injury is likely to keep Chaffee out for the remainder of the regular season.

Johnson said he believes Chaffee would be available should the Indians qualify for the state tournament.

“It’s a big loss,” the coach said of losing Chaffee, who also has contributed seven home runs and 19 RBI at the plate. “We need someone to step up and take those innings.”

Regnault, who replaced the injured Chaffee after one inning against North Florida and pitched seven shutout innings and struck out 11 batters, will be asked to fill the void in the starting rotation left by Chaffee.

“Kyle is very capable of stepping in and doing a great job,” Johnson said. “He does things the right way on and off the field.”

The problem for Johnson is that Regnault’s departure from the bullpen leaves a hole in one of the most vulnerable areas of the team this season.

“We’re going to have to have guys like David Buchanan, Jason Bailey, Ben Jeffers, Carlos Moncrief and J.B. Johnson step up and take his place,” the coach said.
“We have some guys who think they should be pitching more innings, so now they get a chance to step up and show us what they can do.”

Unfortunately for the Indians, injuries are not a new occurrence.

Regulars Jordan Lucas and Moncrief have both missed significant time during conference play, with Chaffee’s injury now hurting Chipola on the mound and at the plate.

“We had an injury-plagued first half of the conference season, but that’s just a thing in this game,” Johnson said. “I told the guys that only the strong will survive. You can’t make excuses. You just have to figure out how to overcome it.
“We always talk about how the 12th man is just as important as the first, so now those guys have to step up and make it happen. We have the talent capable of stepping up, but we have to have some pride in the program. We didn’t have as much of that in the first 10 games (of the conference) as we should.”

The Indians play at 1 p.m. Saturday in Tallahassee and take on PJC Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Pensacola before returning to Marianna Wednesday for the second game of the series at 5 p.m.