NICEVILLE A common thread this season for the Northwest Florida State College baseball team has been the Raiders' tendency to follow a big inning on offense with a dry spell.

That's what happened to the very end of NWF State's year.

In the season finale Wednesday, the Raiders scored five runs in the fourth inning but went cold after that. The lack of production on offense coupled with uncharacteristically shoddy defense led to an 11-8 loss to visiting Chipola College.

The Raiders (26-21, 10-14) batted around in the fourth inning and led 7-3 after Seth Miller followed Josh McGee's RBI single with one of his own. But from there, NWF State only scored once an RBI double by Ben Bridges in the eighth. On two occasions, the Raiders led off an inning with a double but they didn't capitalize either time.

"We've been pretty good throughout the year of having one good inning and then we just don't do anything else," NWF State coach Doug Martin said. " & You've got to be able to do it more than one inning."

NWF State's defense, which had been sound this season, let the pitching staff down. Playoff-bound Chipola (26-23, 13-11) scored five runs in the eighth to take a 9-7 lead, but only two of the runs were earned. Shortstop Ben Hernandez dropped an exchange from pitcher Chris Doyle on a sure double play that would have ended the inning.

Hernandez then booted another double-play ball in the ninth. Pitcher Dean Sangster followed with a wild throw to third on a force-out attempt as Chipola tacked on two more runs for an 11-8 lead that stood.

McGee produced four of NWF State's 13 hits, and he added two RBIs and three runs scored. Christiaan Durdaller had one of the five Raiders' doubles and reached base three other times.

Joey Rapp cranked a tworun homer for Chipola in the first, and Josh Allen added a solo shot in the third. Reliever Garrett Baker picked up the win.

"I thought that we lost the game tonight more so than they won," Martin said. "I just thought we played poor. It's not the way you want to end it, but that's the way we ended it."