Boxscore

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The fifth-ranked Embry-Riddle baseball team battled back from an early seven-run deficit against NAIA No. 21 Southern Poly, but it was the Hornets that emerged with an 8-6 victory on day two of the 2012 ERAU season. The Eagles drop to 1-2 overall, while SPSU wins their opener to move to 1-0. Saturday's game marked the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

Daniel Eaton took the ball for the Eagles, but the junior left-hander had a tough time against the Hornet bats, giving up six runs on seven hits in the first two innings. Southern Poly started a trend in the first that would carry on throughout the game, scoring all seven of their early runs after two outs had been recorded.

Junior Robbie Ratliff relieved Eaton in the bottom of the third, and managed to keep the Eagles in the game, tossing six strong innings of relief, surrendering only two runs on three hits while striking out five.

Down 7-0, ERAU struck for two runs in the visitor half of the fourth, thanks to an Adam Cellini bases-loaded RBI walk and a Greg Smith groundout, cutting the lead to 7-2.

Southern Poly answered with a single run in their half of the fourth to increase their lead to 8-2. However, Embry-Riddle once again plated two runs in the sixth on a Ben Kline home run to left field, scoring Cellini's courtesy runner, Jordan Romero.

Ratliff shut down the Hornets over the next two frames, getting out of a jam in the eighth when he recorded his fifth strikeout of the contest to strand a runner at third.

With one out in the ninth, Ian MacGeorge singled through the right side to give ERAU some hope. The second out of the inning was recorded on a fly out, but Frankie Arias extended the game with a single up the middle. Pinch hitter Jeff Lemon laced a single at the SPSU shortstop, and managed to move to second on a throwing error by the Hornet fielder. Arias moved to third and MacGeorge scored to cut the lead to 8-5. Mike Gragilla got a pinch hit walk to load the bags, and a wild pitch from Hornet pitcher Casey Shiver scored Arias from third. With runners on second and third with two outs, Smith drew a walk, but SPSU catcher Jordan Williams back picked Cellini at second to end the game and stop the Embry-Riddle rally short.

The Eagles stranded 13 runners on the base paths during the contest, despite collecting the same amount of hits as SPSU (10). Each team committed an error with seven of the Hornets' runs being earned, and all six of the Eagles' runs counting towards the SPSU pitchers' ERA.

Eaton suffered the loss (0-1), while Shiver earned the victory (1-0) in relief.

Kline went 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and Callahan Hood continued his hot streak, going 3-for-4 with a run scored.

The Eagles will finish their Alabama trip with a single game tomorrow, Jan. 29 against No. 18 Tennessee Wesleyan at 12 p.m. (CST).