User:Dchesny/FloridaTechBaseballClub

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The Florida Tech Baseball Club Panthers, founded in the fall of 2008 at the Florida Institute of Technology, is a student-run baseball team which competes at the national level in the National Club Baseball Association and locally in the Brevard County Baseball League. The team currently finished its third full season in the BCBL finishing with the second best overall record of 7-6. The NCBA spring season begins February 20-21, 2010 against the University of Central Florida.

Formation
The Florida Tech Baseball Club was formed in the fall of 2008 by junior Dave Valletta and sophomore Mike Abercrombie. After each playing four years of baseball in high school and not receiving baseball scholarships at Florida Tech, Dave and Mike met at a softball tournament and decided to form a club team. Word of mouth spread slowly through the campus, but after a few practices they had enough talent for a full lineup and bench players. The inaugural season was played in the Florida Space Coast Baseball League (currently Brevard County Baseball League) wood bat division. After a slow 1-9 start, the Panthers engineered a 4-1 playoff run and advanced to the championship series in the FSCBL playoffs, losing the deciding game.

National Club Baseball Association
The Florida Tech Baseball Club is an official member of the NCBA South Atlantic Conference-South division. They begin play in the spring of 2010 and play fellow South division members Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, and University of Miami. The team will play a three-game series against each division member, with the division champion advancing to the Regional finals in Atlanta, Georgia. In the spring of 2010 Florida Tech will host Miami and Florida State and travel to UF and UCF.

Florida Tech also plays a continuing schedule of non-conference games. Currently scheduled games are two series against UCF, November 14, 2009, and February 6-7, 2010.

All home games are played at Viera Regional Park located west of I-95 off exit-191.

Brevard County Baseball League
The Florida Tech Baseball Club has played three seasons in the BCBL, with one second-place finish and two third-place finishes.

The inaugural fall 2008 season concluded with a 5-11 record with a berth in the championship game against the Brevard Brewers, which the Panthers lost. After adding a few new players, the Panthers improved to 6-8 in the spring 2009 regular season. The first playoff game was a high scoring affair against the Space Coast Angels with the Panthers coming out on top 12-10. They then lost against the top-seeded Brewers in the second round. The third round of the playoffs was the stage for one of the greatest wins in Florida Tech Baseball Club history. Playing the winless Caribbean Pirates, the Panthers were taken into a 10-inning thriller. After two and a half scoreless extra innings, the Panthers had a chance for a walk-off. With two outs and a man on second base, junior Justin Nunn delivered a base hit into right-center to cement Florida Tech's first walk-off playoff win in team history. However, the magic did not carry over as the Panthers dropped their fourth round game to the Space Coast Sharks, 5-1, to finish in third place.

The third season was very promising with the addition of exceptional young talent. The Panthers started 5-1 and were shaping up to challenge for the BCBL crown. After a slump in which they went 0-3, the Panthers rebounded to win their final regular season game and first playoff game against the perennial champion Palm Bay Americans. Florida Tech lost a close game against the undefeated top-seed Brewers in the second round of the playoffs. In the third round, the Panthers lost an extra-inning heart breaker which included a rain delay and multiple stranded base runners. The loss locked up the Panthers second straight third-place finish, despite ending with the second best overall record.

The chase for Florida Tech Baseball Club's first BCBL title resumes in the spring of 2010.