Baseball team uses strong pitching to defeat Miami Dade

The Eastern Florida State College defeated No. 19 Miami Dade College 3-2 Saturday to win the opening weekend series 2-1 at Bruce Bochy Field.

The Titans, who are 9-9 overall and 2-1 in the Southern Conference, got stellar pitching once again Saturday as starter Darien Smith, Tyler Vogel and Zack Kornick combined to allow two runs.

Eastern Florida State College got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Miami Dade would tie things up in the top of the fifth inning but an Abraham Arroyo RBI single in the bottom of the sixth gave the Titans the lead once more.

Miami Dade would tie the game again in the top of the seventh but the Titans answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh. Tyler Isenberg finished with two hits and scored twice while teammates Alejandro Rodriguez and Connor Leary each had two hits and an RBI.

Tyer Vogel relived Smith in the fifth and allowed one run over 3 1/3 innings to pick up his first win of the season. Zack Kornick got out of a jam in the ninth, getting the strikeout to end the game to pick up his fourth save.

"It was a prototypical game 3 of a series. Both teams fought hard back and forth," Eastern Florida State College baseball coach Jason Arnold said. "Our pitching staff was just outstanding all week. Darien, Tyler, and Zack were all really good today. It was just a solid all-around first week of conference and I think we proved to ourselves we can play with anyone."

The Titans will begin a series with Indian River State College Wednesday evening with the first game at Bruce Bochy Field at 6 p.m.