Baseball team excited to get regular season started on Friday

There is an excitement around the Eastern Florida State College baseball team as they prepare to open the regular season this weekend on the road.

And why not, the Titans return 10 players from last year's team and has added some talented freshman as they open the season Friday afternoon at South Florida State College in Avon Park and then play at Hillsborough Community College Saturday afternoon.

"We are excited. We are tired of practicing and the guys are ready to play someone in a different colored shirt and it has been a lot of hard work to get to this point and we are just excited to go out and compete," Eastern Florida State College baseball coach Jason Arnold said. "I can't wait to see the guys compete and see the culmination of our work and then can make adjustments."

The rotation should be one of the team's strengths this season as Raynieri de los Santos Disla, Boris Villa and Pablo Barquero Jackson return from last season and the team added freshman Carter Stewart along with some other talented arms.

"The key will be to keep these guys heathy, but Carter is an ace at the top, Ray has been really good since the end of the fall season and I think those two form a pretty formidable 1-2 punch. Boris is coming back from injury and the life is coming back so we will ease him back into the mix. Pablo has looked really good the past couple of weeks, we expect him to chew up a lot of innings for us," Arnold said. "Freshmen like Connor Brian, Toshawn Drew, Freddy Gonzalez, and Rafael Acosta - those guys are going to have to be pitching meaningful innings and we would love to have those guys stabilize the team. We would love to be a team known for pitching and defense but we have to wait and see how that works out."

They will be tested early with five games in six days, four of them on the road.

"Opening Day, there is just so much emotions that day and then Hillsborough finished second in the state last year, so they will be very good again and that will be a tough environment for us," Arnold said. "There will be a lot of just staying afloat in the first week and after the dust settles, we will access and see where we are at."

The home opener for the Titans will be Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. against Seminole State College at Bruce Bochy Field.