\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOffensive Outburst Fuels Storybook Finish<\/p>\n
The game itself felt like a tribute to the type of aggressive, relentless baseball that has defined Martin\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
Angel Santiago, playing his final regular-season game in Niceville, went 4-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs. He set the tone immediately with a solo shot in the first, then blew the game open with a three-run blast in the second, staking the Raiders to an early cushion.Hunter Tarchalski was perfect at the plate, finishing 4-for-4 with two RBIs, while Sam Bradley added two hits and two RBIs, contributing to a steady stream of offense.The night\u2019s defining moment came courtesy of third baseman Anthony Quigley, who battered his 16th home run of the season in the fifth inning. Quigley set a new program record with a three-run frame just when Tallahassee had clawed back into the game.<\/p>\n
Northwest Florida led 7\u20131 early before Tallahassee answered with four runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to trim the margin to 7\u20136. But as they have so many times under Martin, the Raiders responded.<\/p>\n
Quigley\u2019s record-breaking homer jump-started a three-run fifth, with Bradley and Tarchalski following with RBI hits to stretch the lead back to four. After Tallahassee scratched across a run in the sixth, the Raiders put the game away for good.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the sixth, Brock Clayton delivered the knockout blow, launching a grand slam to finish off the Eagles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Santiago added an RBI single in the seventh to invoke the run rule and close the Doug Martin era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the win, Northwest Florida improved to 28\u201318 on the season and stayed firmly in the race for a second-place conference finish and a potential home playoff berth, with a regular-season-ending doubleheader at Tallahassee still to come.<\/p>\n
A Career That Changed Northwest Florida Baseball<\/p>\n
Thursday night was about more than one win.<\/p>\n
When Doug Martin arrived in 2009 as just the third head coach in program history, Northwest Florida was a solid junior college program. Eighteen seasons later, it is a nationally recognized powerhouse, largely because of the standard he set.<\/p>\n
Over his tenure, Martin has:<\/p>\n
Compiled a 572\u2013306\u20131 record (through the 2026 season so far)Led the Raiders to:10 postseason appearances4 Panhandle Conference Championships (2011, 2019, 2023, 2024)2 FCSAA State\/NJCAA Region 8 titles (2015, 2024)2 NJCAA World Series appearancesThe program\u2019s first NJCAA National Championship in 2015Earned:NJCAA Division I Coach of the Year (2015)FCSAA Coach of the Year twice (2015, 2024)Panhandle Conference Coach of the Year four times (2011, 2019, 2023, 2024)<\/p>\n
174 players have advanced to four-year schools, and 42 have signed professional contracts with Major League organizations after playing for Martin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2024, the Raiders went 40\u201315, won back-to-back Panhandle titles, claimed another FCSAA\/Region 8 championship, and advanced to the NJCAA World Series, finishing as national runner-up.In 2025, Northwest Florida went 32\u201317, reached the postseason again, and watched Qrey Lott (San Diego Padres) and Thomas Conrad (Milwaukee Brewers) move on to professional baseball.\u201cThis Place Is Special to Me\u201d: Martin\u2019s Emotional Farewell<\/p>\n
Before the first pitch, Martin took the microphone at home plate and delivered a heartfelt speech that captured why Thursday night meant so much.<\/p>\n
He began with gratitude\u2014for the crowd, for Tallahassee, and for the opportunity to coach in a community that embraced him and his program. He thanked:<\/p>\n
Coach Henry for his patience and partnership.Fellow Raider Coaches Bart Walker, Steve DeMeo and Andy Lee.\u00a0The College\u2019s past and present leadership.His assistant coaches, including Coach Garner, who first led the program before serving alongside Martin for 11 years. Martin noted that Garner had been part of Raider baseball for 22 years and made a point to publicly recognize him:<\/p>\n
He then turned to the people who opened the doors that led him to Niceville. He recalled being a high school coach at Escambia High School and Pensacola High School, still unsure if he could make the jump to college baseball, until Coach Bill Hamilton at Pensacola Junior College gave him his first college opportunity.<\/p>\n
He thanked Hamilton for taking a chance on a young coach \u201cwho didn\u2019t know anything about college baseball,\u201d and credited him for teaching him how to carry himself and his team\u2014right down to how they stand for the national anthem.<\/p>\n
Martin also acknowledged the administrator who entrusted him with the Raider program in the first place, Coach Mickey Eaglet, who hired him for his first head coaching job, taking a chance on an unproven leader.<\/p>\n
But the most emotional moment came when Martin spoke about his wife, Candice.<\/p>\n
He paused to thank her for years of support, describing how she listened, advised, and steadied him through the ups and downs of coaching life:<\/p>\n
He admitted there was \u201cno way\u201d he could be \u201canywhere close to being a decent coach whatsoever\u201d without her, making sure she received the credit he felt she deserved.<\/p>\n
For all his wins and accolades, Martin\u2019s voice carried a different kind of pride when he spoke about wearing \u201cRaiders\u201d across his chest.<\/p>\n
He reminded the crowd that Northwest Florida doesn\u2019t just represent a mascot. The program honors the legacy of the Doolittle Raiders, who trained nearby at Eglin Air Force Base and whose patch and American flag the team wears on its uniforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a Raider means something special,\u201d he said, noting that while his players move on to schools with mascots like bears, tigers, and the Crimson Tide, they will always carry the experience of representing some of the bravest people in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
He closed with a simple message of appreciation and identity:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place is special to me\u2026 We\u2019re just so grateful to be able to try our best to represent what I think are some of the most special people that our country has ever seen\u2026 Thank you very much. And go Raiders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Offensive Outburst Fuels Storybook Finish The game itself felt like a tribute to the type of aggressive, relentless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-245432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}