Baseball team rolls past Hillsborough CC

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team picked up a big win at home Friday afternoon.

The Titans, who are 4-5 and have won two in a row, defeated Hillsborough Community College 12-2 in seven innings at Bruce Bochy Field.

Starting pitcher KC Swords had his best outing of the season, tossing seven strong innings for the Titans. The sophomore left hander struck out eight and allowed two earned runs for his first win of the season.

Meanwhile the offense got things going early as Carlos Cordero singled, then Don McKnight walked. Zach Taylor drove in Cordero with a single and then Matt Merk was hit by a pitch. With two outs, Brady Strelitz hit a two-run single to make it 3-0.

After another scoreless inning from Swords, Gabriel Cruz hit a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall for his first home run of the season. Cordero would single and score and a sacrifice fly by Eddiel Tolentino made it 5-0.

Strelitz led off the third inning with a double and scored on a Cruz RBI single. Cordero came up and hammered a high fastball over the left field fence for a two-run home run. It was Cordero's first home run of the year.

Up 8-0, Hillsborough Community College scored twice in the top of the fourth inning, but the Titans would score four more times in the sixth inning to make it 12-2.

Cordero went 3-for-4 with four runs scored, Strelitz also went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored while Cruz and Taylor each had two hits in the win.

Eastern Florida State College will travel to Hillsborough Community College on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game at the George M. Steinbrenner Community Field.