Baseball team beats Miami Dade, goes for series win Saturday

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team snapped No. 19 Miami Dade's 12-game win streak Friday night to even the Southern Conference series.

The Titans defeated the Sharks 11-2 on a chilly night with winds consistently blowing 20 miles per hour at Bruce Bochy Field. The two teams will play the final game of the three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. at Bruce Bochy Field.

Miami Dade took advantage of some early miscues to score a run in both the first and second innings and looked like they may open things up in the top of the third inning, loading the bases with one out.

But Titans starting pitcher Chase Victor retired the next two hitters to get out of the jam and that seemed to spark the Titans offense.

Gabriel Vera led off with a single and Jeff Richardson reached on an error. Both would score on Tyler Isenberg's double to tie the game 2-2. Isenberg would score to give the Titans a 3-2 lead.

From there Victor settled down and would pick up his third win of the season, striking out six in six innings.

"He pitched great, it was one of those days that the weather was a hug piece of the puzzle and t affected us and them early in the game," Eastern Florida State College head coach Jason Arnold said. "He kept his composure and did a great job of keeping his pitch count down to give us a great start and the offense did the rest."

The offense would score three more times in the fourth inning and bat around in the fifth, scoring five more times to open up the game.

Connor Leary drove in three runs and Jeff Richardson scored three times in the win. Rafael Acosta took over for Victor and threw three shutout innings striking out three.

"I think the first step in a three-game series is to win one and we have put ourselves in position to try and win the series," Arnold said. "I think everyone knows how good they are and we showed tonight what we are capable of and hopefully we come back tomorrow with the same kind of energy and effort."

The final game of the weekend series will begin at 1 p.m. at Bruce Bochy Field on the Melbourne campus. Sophomore right-hander Darien Smith will get the start for the Eastern Florida State College who is 8-9 overall and 1-1 in the conference.