OLD ORCHARD BEACH — In a matchup of the best and worst teams in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League’s East Division, the division leaders showed their might, as the Brockton Rox rolled to an 11-5 victory over the host Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide on Wednesday afternoon.

The Raging Tide put groundball specialist Zach Kirby on the mound to start the game, and he got a groundball from Brockton’s Tom Marcinczyk to lead off. The only problem was, Marcinczyk’s grounder went up the middle for a single. A double play nullified Marcinczyk, and Kirby battled around an error and walk to get out of the inning, but ran into trouble again in the second.

Jacob Marotta singled up the middle with one out on a grounder that took a funny bounce under shortstop Kyle Mendenhall. Brian Bauk followed with a single off the glove of Kirby and under the glove of charging second baseman Aaron Wilson. After a strikeout and a walk, both Marotta and Bauk came home on a Christian Campbell single past third.

“Two tough plays,” Raging Tide manager Chris Torres said of the first two singles. “We got to rise above it.”

Kirby had even more trouble to start the third, as two straight singles to lead off were followed by a three-run home run to left by Drew Lugbauer, making it 5-0 Rox.

The Tide finally got on the board in the bottom of the frame, as Wilson walked with two outs, moved to third on consecutive stolen bases, and scored on a single by Rahiem Cooper, but that was all the home team could muster in the inning. The Tide added another run in the fourth, as Graham McIntire led off with a walk and scored on a run-scoring double play by Jake Osborne.

“We’ve got to take advantage of opportunities, and we’re just not doing it,” said Torres. “We left a good amount of people on base today.”

Kirby lasted just four innings, and the Tide bullpen failed to provide much relief against a Brockton offense that was firing on all cylinders in the game. Jake Klancnik, Will Ore and Artom Rank gave up two runs each during their stints on the mound.

Dylan Morrow pitched a scoreless ninth, but did give up a two-out walk, as the Rox put a runner on base in every inning.

The Tide only went down 1-2-3 in one inning ”“ the eighth ”“ but didn’t have the same kind of success hitting with runners on.

“They were hitting the ball, just not where they needed to, or not where it needed to go,” said Torres.

The Tide made the score a little more respectable with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, as the division cellar-dweller refused to go away quietly.

“They’re not going to give up; they’re not going to roll over,” said Torres. “They’re going to play hard.”

The Raging Tide (13-27) has 15 games remaining in its season, including the next three at home. The team dropped 11 games behind Brockton (25-17) with the loss and eight games behind second-place Martha’s Vineyard. Torres said he knows what the odds are to keep playoff hopes alive.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to put together a pretty impressive winning streak to get something done,” said Torres.

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.