Titans Defeat Daytona State 12-7

Eastern Florida sophomore right-hander Blair Calvo pitched six shutout innings and his teammates collected 16 hits en route to a 12-7 baseball victory over Daytona State College on Monday.

The victory at Bruce Bochy Field on the Melbourne Campus improved Eastern Florida's record to 6-1. Daytona fell to 1-5.

Calvo, pitching on an extra day's rest due to Sunday's rainout, struck out nine batters and allowed three hits and one walk, exiting with a 5-0 lead.

Eastern Florida stretched the lead to 11-0 before Daytona struck back at the Titan bullpen, plating seven runs in the final two innings.

Sophomore Manny Rodriguez led the Titans offensive parade with three hits and four runs batted in. Freshman Sammy Duran also had three hits including a triple and scored three times.

Freshman A.J. Puigcerver, sophomore John Capra and freshman Gian Jimenez had two hits each.

Titan head coach Jeff Tam praised Calvo's effort.

"You put him out there, I don't want to expect that but he's always in the fight, he's always making good pitches," Tam said.

"He's got plus stuff all the way around the board. We expect to be in every game he's in."

Calvo credited his fastball and slider.

"It felt pretty good," he said. "I established the fastball early and put away with the slider. I think it was five or six days rest. You just go with it."

Tam was encouraged with Rodriguez's output.

"He's a guy who's got to compete," Tam said. "He can't strike out. He's got to put the ball in play and great things are going to happen. He raises havoc on the bases. He's done a wonderful job up there so far and we expect him to keep rolling with it."

Rodriguez is getting comfortable at the plate.

"It's a good day," he said. "The first two at bats I couldn't see the ball coming out of their hand but the third at bat (a three-run double) I just tried to put something in play and get some runs for my team. I'm glad that happened.

"I'm pretty comfortable, the team's looking pretty good."

The Titans return to action at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Daytona State.