Titans baseball team rallies past Broward College

All tied up in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Eastern Florida State College baseball team put together one final rally to defeat Broward College 12-8 in a Southern Conference game Thursday night at Bruce Bochy Field.

Jacob McFadden led off the eighth with his third double of the game, Jeff Korte followed with a walk and Elian Merejo ripped an 0-1 pitch down the third-base line to score McFadden, giving the Titans a 9-8 lead.

"McFadden did his job, got on base and that's what we needed leading off the inning. Dude was throwing pretty good, saw the first pitch was in and luckily I got the same pitch again and reacted quick and it fell in," Merejo said.

The Titans would go on to score three more times in the inning and Tim Luth struck out two in the ninth to pick up his first win of the season.

Gabriel Rodriguez made his fifth start of the season for the Titans and struck out six, allowing two earned runs in six innings of work.

But the bullpen and defense struggled and an 8-2 lead turned into a tie game in the eighth inning with Broward scoring five times. But Luth came in and struck out Alex Carballo to keep the game tied 8-8. Luth finished with three strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings of work.

Merejo finished 3-for-3 with a two-run triple in the fifth and the RBI double in the eighth.

"I am seeing the ball well, connecting well," Merejo said. "I saw the ball well today and hopefully it stays that way."

McFadden also had three hits and scored three runs while Ian Lisle had two hits. Sebastian Rivera scored two runs and has now scored a run in nine of the 10 games he has hit leadoff.

The Titans will be back at Bruce Bochy Field Friday for a Southern Conference game against Miami Dade. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.