WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle baseball team sent senior lefty Kevin Maloney to the mound on Friday to face Northwood in West Palm Beach, and the Dunedin, Fla. native did what he's done four previous times in 2013, earn a win for the Blue and Gold. Maloney tossed six innings, and despite giving up nine hits to the Seahawks, he only allowed three runs and the Eagle bullpen did the rest as ERAU emerged with an 8-4 victory in the conference series opener. The Eagles (22-4, 9-1) were out-hit by Northwood (21-10-1, 6-4), but collected seven RBIs in the contest.

The two teams will meet for a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 11 a.m.

Jake Kutsukos stranded Jordan Johnson on the bases in the top of the first, and the Seahawks struck right away in the home-half of the frame, getting singles from Richie Reilly and Manuel Gonzalez to plate two early runs againt Maloney.

Embry-Riddle answered quickly in the second, scoring a single run when Liam Goodall singled up the middle to score Matt Jacobs from second and a few batters later, Tyler Robbins dropped a double down the right field line, bringing in Goodall and Jordan Romero, giving the Eagles a 3-2 lead.

Maloney faced the minimum in the bottom of the second and standed a runner at third in the next frame, but Embry-Riddle couldn't add any insurance runs until the fifth when Adam Cellini came through with a huge, two-out, three-RBI double to left-center, scoring Jacobs, Kyle Chastain and Johnson and pushing the Blue and Gold advantage to 6-2.

Northwood singled three times in the fifth, but Maloney got a double play and a lazy fly out to end the frame.

Kutsukos gave way to Jeff Fignar in the sixth and when Northwood got to Maloney for a run in the seventh in addition to putting two men on with no outs, Randy Stegall went to Eric Green to try to shut the door on the Seahawk rally.

Green struck out the first two batters he faced before getting cleanup hitter Reilly to groundout to third to nullify the baserunners and send the Eagles back to the plate leading 6-3.

Jacobs reached first base in the first of the eighth on an infield error, and his pinch runner, David Belardes, moved to second and then third before scoring on a balk by Fignar, giving the Eagles a 7-3 cushion.

Northwood got a single, unearned run in the eighth to cut the lead to 7-4, but again the Eagles answered in the ninth when Kevin Lindheim singled through the left side, scoring Robbins and accounting for the 8-4 final.

Ronnie Lozada entered for Green in the ninth, allowing two runners to reach base before striking out the side to secure the victory.

Maloney (5-0) pitched six innings, scattering nine hits and three runs while Green tossed two frames, allowing one unearned run on two hits with three strikeouts, and Lozada pitched the final inning, fanning three Seahawks.

Cellini collected three RBIs on one hit, Robbins recorded a pair of RBIs on a hit and Lindheim and Goodall both struck for RBIs.