Softball team opens season in Clearwater this weekend

The Eastern Florida State College softball team enters the 2018 season with high expectations.

 New head coach Jim Beitia has been happy with the progress of the team during practice and believes they can reach their goals.

 "We have changed the vocabulary away from goals to make it expectations. Goals are things that may or may not be reached. In any job, you have certain expectations and a softball player also has certain expectations. Ours are to make it to the state tournament, then make it to Utah for the national tournament," Beitia said.

The team has a lot of new faces this season with just six sophomores on the roster. All-Southern Conference first team player Brooke Diaz returns along with second-teamer Mary Waldron.

The team will open the season in Clearwater this weekend in the JUCO Kickoff. On Friday the Titans will open the season against Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College at 4:20 p.m. and then face Northwest Florida State College at 6:20 p.m. They will face Tallahassee Community College at 11 a.m. and then the College of Central Florida at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and then wrap up the weekend with games against Georgia Military and Hillsborough Community College on Sunday.

"All of the best teams in the state of Florida will be there and some good out of state teams as well," Beitia said of the tourney. "We are building up pitch counts and swings this week to prepare for it. I think we will be a very good hitting team and we can run so I think we will be able to score a lot of runs."

The Titans' home opener will be Feb. 4 against Seminole State College at 1 p.m. Admission is free to games at Titan Softball Complex.