BCC Titans Baseball Season Reaches Conclusion

By  //  April 21, 2013

Third Tourney Game Proves Decisive

LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA – Brevard Community College’s baseball season came to end on Saturday, but not without one last valiant effort in a season full of them.

BCC sophomore Chris Dennis has two hits for the Titans in their final baseball game of the season on Saturday in Lake Worth. (Image courtesy of BCC).
BCC sophomore Chris Dennis had two hits for the Titans in their final baseball game of the season on Saturday in Lake Worth. (Image courtesy of BCC).

Down 5-0 to host Palm Beach State College after three innings BCC fought back to 5-2 and had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the ninth inning. But the magic finally expired and BCC lost in the third and final game of the Florida College System Activities Association Southern Conference tournament in Lake Worth.

The victory earned Palm Beach State the conference’s second bid to the state tournament in Lakeland in May. The Panthers will join conference regular-season champion Miami Dade College, which earned an automatic bid.

That BCC reached the final of the best-of-three series after losing Friday’s opener 9-1 to Palm Beach, was thanks to its pulsating 3-2 victory in 10 innings earlier Saturday. But the breaks of the game that went BCC’s way in the victory favored Palm Beach in the final.

The Panthers parlayed two BCC errors and two wild pitches to score three runs in the second inning. They scored twice more in the third inning on three hits for all the runs they needed.

TITANSLOGO_250BCC outhit Palm Beach 10-7, but Panthers starter Bryan Coughlin, who pitched 8 1/3 innings, held the Titans at bay before yielding to reliever Jared Tosner. Tosner got the final two outs on pop-ups, retiring the powerful duo of Matt Harris and designated hitter David King.

Palm Beach improved to 34-18 overall, beating BCC for the sixth time in nine meetings this season. BCC, appearing in the conference tournament for the first time since 2009, finished the season at 25-23-1.

All-conference first-team selection Chris Dennis had two hits for BCC in the finale as did Roman Restrepo and Austin Leeney.

“In this game anything can happen,” said BCC head coach Jeff Tam who completed his first full season as head coach after replacing veteran Ernie Rosseau in March of 2012.

“They fought back, it’s a tribute to these guys. It’s just a never give up attitude around here. These kids bought into it. We’re going to fight and we’re going to fight and we’re going to fight and they did. We just came up a little bit short.”

Starter Aaron Miller took the loss for BCC.

Also receiving conference recognition for BCC were closer Chris Gilmore honored as Fireman of the Year, and Harris, Kenton Hering and T.J. Glessner who were named to the second team.