Baseball team hosts SCF-Manatee Thursday in conference game

The Eastern Florida State College baseball team will be home Thursday night for the first game of a Citrus Conference series.

The Titans will play the State College of Florida-Manatee in a three-game series beginning Thursday at Bruce Bochy Field in a matchup of top five teams in the standings. The series opener will begin at 6 p.m. and admission is free.

Eastern Florida State College is 14-13 in the standings and are fifth in the FCSAA in team ERA, posting a 4.61 ERA in 44 games this season. Starting pitcher Owen Simmons is scheduled to take the mound on Thursday with a 3.88 ERA and is 4-4 on the season. He has struck out 63 in 69 2/3 innings in 12 starts.

Sophomore Jeff Davis is hitting .356 this season while Jason Mack, Shane Thomas and Kevin Smith are all hitting .340 or better. Smith has 38 stolen bases this season which is first in the state and fifth in the NJCAA Division I rankings.

SCF-Manatee is fifth in the FCSAA in batting average, hitting .317 this season and leads the state in triples with 15 and fifth in home runs with 47. The Manatees are led by the trio of Myles Davis, Luke Boykin and Ben Ryan who are all hitting .350 or over in 32-plus games.

SCF-Manatee comes into the series 17-10 and is third in the conference.

Thursday's game will be shown live online at the EFSC Titans YouTube page.