Baseball team ready to open conference season on Wednesday

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team will open play in the Southern Conference Wednesday afternoon at Bruce Bochy Field.

The Titans enter conference play 6-8 overall but four of those eight losses have been by one run and overall Eastern Florida State College has played seven one-run games this season.

"I like where we are at in most phases, I think we are still inconsistent day to day but we have competed every single day and we have been in seven one-run games and that is what conference is about so hopefully those experiences will help us throughout the conference season," Eastern Florida State College baseball coach Jason Arnold said. "We are as ready as we are going to be."

And they will open with Miami-Dade who finished last season with 18 wins in the conference and finished second in the conference standings, advancing to the state tournament. This season the Sharks are 9-5 and ranked ninth in the FCSAA state tournament but defeated No. 1 Florida Southwestern last weekend.

"I think it's great to go right out and test yourself against the barometer of the conference, get to see what we have and what we are up against and make adjustments from there," Arnold said. "I think everybody in our organization will agree that we can play with anyone, it's just a matter of finishing games off and we are still learning how to win. The experience has been very valuable and I think we are ready."

Eastern Florida State College's pitching staff has struck out 151 hitters this season which is tops in the state and third in the nation.

"I think we are a little bit better on the mound than I thought, we are striking out a bunch of guys, the walk total is not good but we aren't giving up a lot of hits either so we are really competing on the mound," Arnold said. "I am pleased with the depth of the pitching staff, we have nine or 10 guys that are contributing."

Miami-Dade will be a tough task as the Sharks come into the series in the top five in the state in batting average. Carter Stewart will take the mound in Game 1 of the three-game series which will head to Miami for games on Friday and Saturday.

Stewart is making his fourth start of the season and has a 3.46 ERA this season. Admission to Bruce Bochy Field is free.