Titans Beat Palm Beach 12-2 Behind Meyers

Eastern Florida's baseball team received seven strong innings from left-hander Matt Meyers and scored eight runs in the seventh inning to claim a mercy-rule shortened 12-2 victory over Palm Beach State College at Bruce Bochy Field.

The FCSAA Southern Conference victory improved first-place Eastern Florida's record to 11-5 and 25-10 overall. Palm Beach fell to 8-9 and 19-18. The Titans are ranked fifth in Florida.

The teams meet again at 3 p.m. Thursday in Lake Worth in a game postponed from Tuesday.

Meyers limited Palm Beach to four hits while the Titans pounded out 13. They also took advantage of four Palm Beach errors, two coming in the decisive seventh inning which began with the Titans leading 4-2. 

It ended with Manny Rodriguez driving in Reuben Garcia with the 12^th run with no outs on the scoreboard.

Rodriguez, Sammy Duran, Jay Ciuro and Garcia had two hits each. Ciuro had three runs batted in and Ian Lisle two.

The victory was the first for Meyers since February.

"I was kind of concerned early with Matt, he was falling behind early in the count and he wasn't putting guys behind and then he would make a pitch," said Eastern Florida head coach Jeff Tam.

"So I had a little talk with him. 'Pound the zone early and then start putting guys away when you have the opportunity.' He got a lot better. His change-up was unbelievable. We'll take it going into these next three. It saved the bullpen."

Beyond Thursday the Titans visit second-place Broward College on Friday and Saturday in Davie. 

"This conference will eat you alive if you think you can walk in here and throw your gloves out there and get things done," Tam said. "These teams are good. They can play. If you take them for granted they will beat you. 

"That's kind of the mindset we try to keep with these kids. Just grind. Every pitch matters. Every at bat matters. So far, so good. Let's just keep it rolling."

Meyers admitted to somewhat of a struggle in the middle innings.

"The third and fourth innings didn't go too well," he said. "I was getting ahead but when I did get ahead I didn't finish the batters."

But he settled in and set down the Panthers, retiring them in order in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

"It feels great," Meyers said. "It feels good to have another conference win under my belt."