Baseball team sweeps doubleheader vs SCF-Manatee

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team won both games on Saturday to pick up a series victory over the State College of Florida, Manatee on Saturday.

The Titans came back from a 6-2 deficit, scoring five times in the sixth inning to pull out then 7-6 victory in Game 1. Then the Titans scored six times in the third inning and won 8-6 to keep their postseason hopes alive at 14-16 in the Citrus Conference.

Hector Mangual doubled and scored on Adrian Dominguez groundout to make it 3-1 in the third inning. Then trailing 5-1 in the fourth inning, Kevin Smith hammered a ball off the scoreboard for his first home run to make it 5-2. SCF-Manatee added a run with a solo home run by Walker Venacek.

Down 6-2, the Titans sent 10 players in the sixth inning as Jake Cooper reached on an error and would score. Jeff Davis, Carlos Cordero, Ryan Cerrone and Adrian Dominguez all singled and scored in the inning as the Titans took the lead.

Anthony Cordero came in and struck out two of the four hitters he faced for his seventh save. Evimael Quiles picked up the win in relief.

Mangual had three hits in the game while Bell and Cerrone each had two hits.

In Game 2 it was the Titans who struck first with six runs in the bottom of the third inning. Up 1-0 on a Dominguez RBI single, Laheim Bell came to the plate with the bases loaded. Bell hit the first pitch down the right field line, scoring all three runners as he ended up with a standup triple.

Allen Gil-Fernandez hit an RBI triple and then scored to cut the Titans lead to 6-2 in the fourth. The Titans would add two more runs in the fifth inning as Jake Cooper and Kevin Smith each scored.

LT Cockerill hit a solo home run in the seventh inning and Luis Garrido hit one in the ninth inning as SCF-Manatee cut the lead to 8-4. They would score again before Rhys Francis came in and got out of the jam, allowing a sacrifice fly and then got the groundball to end the threat.

Francis picked up his second save of the season and Nathan Hook picked up the win with five solid innings.

Smith finished with four hits in the game while Cerrone, Dominguez, Cooper and Davis all had two hits in the win.

Eastern Florida State College will host Miami Dade College in the final series of the regular season beginning Thursday afternoon at Bruce Bochy Field. Thursday's game will be shown live locally on WEFS-TV which is channel 9 or 455 on Spectrum, 68 on DirecTV, 30 on Dish and 68 on AT&T Uverse. Admission is free to games at Bruce Bochy Field and will also be shown on the EFSC Titans YouTube page.