The Santa Fe Saints failed to string hits together in key situations stranding 12 runners in their 8-2 loss to State College of Florida Sunday night in Lakeland and were eliminated from the FCSAA State Tournament.

"SCF had the one big inning in the second and we just couldn't seem to string together enough hits to have one ourselves," said SF head coach Johnny Wiggs.

Donovan Benoit (5-3) took the loss allowing five runs over 3.2 innings against the Manatees lineup that banged out 15 hits in the game.

"I'm very proud of our guys' effort all year," said Wiggs. "We battled back from a tough conference start to make the state tournament for fifth consecutive year and 10^th in 13 years. To win the State Championship you have to have a special five days and this year just wasn't our year."

The Saints (38-17) defeated Florida Southwestern State College 2-1 in the first round of the tournament last Friday and fell to Chipola 8-7 on Saturday setting up Sunday's elimination game with SCF.

Michael Paul (9-2) picked up the win over FSW, giving up just one unearned run over six innings while striking out eight Buccaneers.

Sophomore Kyler Marquis led the Saints at the plate, hitting .444 over the weekend while freshman Jonathan Logsdon hit .400 and sophomore Brock Edge hit .333.

"I'm really thankful for our sophomores that have put so much effort into continuing our winning culture here," said Wiggs. "They will be missed."

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