Baseball team beats Broward, locks up second in conference

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team locked up second place in the Southern Conference Friday night with a 10-4 win against Broward College at Bruce Bochy Field.

The Titans improved to 13-10 in the conference and 29-18 overall with the win and will host the Southern Conference Tournament Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday night eight different players had hits against Broward College as the Titans finished with 12 hits as Dilan Espinal, Alejandro Rodriguez, Alvaro Valdez and Collier Rutledge each finished with two hits.

Sophomore Kevin Silva hit a solo home run to give the Titans a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning. But Broward would tie the game in the top of the fifth inning.

The Titans would explode for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run double by Valdez. Austin Bates would follow with an RBI triple which is the 27th straight game the catcher has had a hit which is the longest streak for a Titans player in the past 15 years. Eastern Florida State College added two runs in the sixth inning and another run in the seventh for their second straight win against Broward College.

The final game of the series will be at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Toshawn Drew struck out five in three innings of relief of starter Pablo Barquero Jackson to improve to 2-0 on the season.  

Saturday's game begins at 1 p.m. and admission is free to Bruce Bochy Field. The tournament will begin Wednesday at 3 p.m. with Broward College facing Indian River State College. The winner of that game will face the Titans at 6:30 p.m. in the first of a best-of-three game series.