Junior Eric Green threw seven strong innings for the Eagles, earning his first victory in an ERAU uniform.
Boxscore
LAKELAND, Fla. - Embry-Riddle came away with an impressive 7-6 victory over NCAA II power Florida Southern on Tuesday night at Historic Henley Field. The Eagles got a solid outing from
Eric Green and plated three runs in the eighth inning en route to their 33rd victory of the season. ERAU improves to 33-11 overall while the Mocs fall to 20-15 on the year. The Eagles grabbed their third-ever win over FSC, and now trail just 3-4 all-time in the series.
FSC starter Anthony Dovale was making his first start of the season, and the Eagles jumped on him right away, plating two runs in the first.
Frankie Arias took the first pitch of the game back up the middle for a base hit before
Jeff Lemon brought him in with a double to right center. Lemon moved to third on a groundout from
Chris Page, and Lemon touched home on
Ian MacGeorge's double to right center, making it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
Green took the mound for the Eagles to begin the game, garnering his second start of the 2012 season. The DeLand, Fla. native got the first two outs of the frame via a strikeout and pop up, but Mike Snyder cut the lead in half with a solo shot over the fence in left field during the third at-bat of the first inning, pulling the Mocs to within 2-1.
The Mocs had a big inning in the second, tying it up and taking a three-run lead against Green and the Eagles. Two runs came on Cory Jensen's sacrifice fly to center, the Eagles appealed to second, saying the runner left early, but the field umpire ruled the runner had not left early and the Mocs took a 5-2 lead into the third.
ERAU got a pair of runs in the third thanks to three Florida Southern errors. Arias and Lemon both reached on infield errors before moving up on Dovale's failed pickoff attempt to second.
Ben Kline, who became the 17th member of
ERAU's 150-hit Club last Saturday, walked and Page was hit by a pitch to score one run.
Mike Gragilla brought in another run when the Mocs' second baseman booted his second ball of the frame, scoring Lemon, and cutting the lead to 5-4.
Green delivered a three-up, three-down inning in the bottom of the third, leading to the Eagle's fourth, the best scoring output inning of 2012. But, the Eagles were unable to threaten new FSC pitcher, Austin Barnett, sending just four batters to the plate before Barnett got Kline to fly out to center to end the frame.
Green and Barnett worked flawlessly through the middle innings, neither allowing the other team to score, keeping the runs at 5-4 in favor of the hosts.
Green gave the Eagles another shutdown inning in the bottom of the seventh, and
Matt Skipper led off the top of the eighth with a pinch hit walk to give the Blue and Gold some hope of a rally.
Adam Cellini put down a bunt to sacrifice Skipper's pinch runner,
David Belardes to second, but Cellini gutted out an infield single on the bunt to put two Eagles on with no outs.
Greg Smith put together a solid at-bat and drew a walk in the next plate appearance, loading the bases and bringing in Mike Czenszak from the bullpen. Arias delivered for ERAU in the following at-bat, taking the first pitch he saw through the right side, scoring Belardes and Cellini, giving ERAU a 6-5 lead. Lemon collected a sacrifice fly with his fly ball to right-center, allowing Smith to tag up and score, and extending the Eagle lead to 7-5.
Daniel Eaton entered in the bottom of the eighth in relief of Green, and faced just four batters in the frame, getting three groundouts to send the game to the final stages.
The Mocs made it interesting in the ninth, getting two singles by the first two batters, but Eaton buckled down, and after one run scored and the tying run reached third base, he got a fly ball to left field that Smith put away to secure the 7-6 victory.
Green (1-1 ) threw seven full innings for the Eagles, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits while fanning five batters. Eaton tossed the final two frames to earn the save, his first of the season.
Arias went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, and Lemon was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Page, MacGeorge and Gragilla all collected an RBI in the game.
The Eagles slipped two spots to No. 6 in the national poll released on Tuesday. The Eagles received 433 total votes in the poll. LSU Shreveport, Lee (Tenn.), Oklahoma City, Faulkner (Ala.) and Azusa Pacific (Calif.) make up the top five. Embry-Riddle's opponent this weekend, St. Thomas (Fla.) jumped two places to 12th in the poll, while South Carolina Beaufort made their first appearance of 2012 in the poll at 22nd.
The Eagles take on St. Thomas this weekend down in Miami Gardens, Fla. The three-game series will most likely determine the regular season champion of The Sun Conference. Game one on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m., while the doubleheader on Saturday is slated for a 1 p.m. start.
