Titans win first, rally back in second to split with Miami Dade

The Eastern Florida State College softball team earned a hard-fought split with Miami Dade in a Citrus Conference doubleheader that was shown live on WEFS-TV.

The Titans came up clutch in the first game and almost pulled out a sweep, falling short in the second game at Titan Softball Complex on Tuesday.

Madison Ford singled and moved to second base on Ashley Corazzini's sacrifice bunt bringing up Marisa Shoudt. Shoudt hit a 1-2 pitch deep to left field for a sacrifice fly and hand the Titans a 3-2 win in the first game.

Ford scored the first run of the game for the Titans in the second inning, reaching on an error and then Corazzini hit a sacrifice bunt. She would score on Shoudt's groundout to make it 1-0.

They would add a run in the third inning as Brooke Theisen singled and scored on McKenzie Jewell's double to the wall.

Up 2-0, Hannah Strickland tossed six shutout innings but Miami Dade would strike in the seventh as Jimena Kunigami hit a two-run triple with two out to tie the game.

In Game 2, the Miami Dade bats came alive, taking advantage of some walks and errors to score five runs in both the second and third innings. Up 10-0, the Titans made it 10-1 in the third inning.

It looked as if the Sharks were going to cruise to an easy win with two outs in the fifth inning, Theisen scored on an error to make it 10-2 and then Jewell scored on a wild pitch to stay alive. Destiny Lake retired Miami Dade in order and the Titans once again went to work on offense.

Faith Campos had an RBI single, then Livie Davis singled to score Elizabeth Bratcher. Jewell hit a single up the middle that would score both Campos and Davis and it was 10-7. Sam Formosa would hit an RBI single that scored Jewell and the Titans cut the score to 10-8. Campos would single in the bottom of the seventh but the Titans could not get any closer.

Eastern Florida State College is now 33-19 overall and 18-18 in the conference. The 33 wins is the best win total since the 2012 season for the Titans. The team will travel to Hillsborough Community College on Thursday for a makeup series with the Hawks. The doubleheader will begin at 4 p.m.