Baseball team picks up pair of wins against No. 5 FSW

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team picked up a pair of big wins over No. 5 Florida Southwestern State College on Saturday.

The Titans, who are now 9-9 in the Citrus Conference, scored five times in the top of the seventh inning to win the first game 11-8 and then won the second game 5-2.

With the bases loaded and two out in the seventh inning, Jamel Vera hit a single to left field, scoring Jackson Wargo and Bryce Jackson. Tied 8-8, Kevin Smith stepped up to the plate crushed a three-run home run to give the Titans an 11-8 lead.

Brody Kelly took over in the ninth inning and got his first save with a scoreless ninth inning.

Down 4-1 in the fifth inning, the Titans would tie the game as Bo Tabola hit a two-run double down the right field line and went to third on the throw. Tabola would score on Ryan Cerrone's sacrifice fly.

Down 7-4, Shane Thomas hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to make it 7-6.

Tabola and Jason Mack each had two hits and Smith scored three times.

In Game 2, Michael Benedict took the mound and had a strong outing for the Titans, tossing 6 1/3 innings and left with the game tied 2-2. Benedict struck out four in just his second start of the season.

The Titans took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Bryce Jackson. The Titans would make it 2-0 in the third on a Ryan Cerrone home run.

Florida Southwestern would cut the lead to 2-1 on a sacrifice fly in the fifth and tied the game on a Nick Pereira RBI single in the seventh.

Vera stepped up in the eighth inning with runners on second and third and once again singled, scoring both runs to give the Titans a 4-2 lead. A bases loaded walk by Cerrone made it 5-2.

Kenneth Robinson got out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth inning and tossed a scoreless ninth inning for his second save of the season. Jacob Goldman picked up the win in relief of Benedict.

Jackson had two hits in the game.

Eastern Florida State College, who now has 20 wins on the season, will travel to Seminole State College on Tuesday for a 3 p.m. game before hosting St. Petersburg College Thursday at 5 p.m. in a Citrus Conference series opener.

Thursday's game will be shown locally on WEFS-TV, channel 9 or 455 on Spectrum, 68 on DirecTV, 30 on Dish and 68 on AT&T Uverse. The game will be at Bruce Bochy Field and admission is free.