DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Weather played a big part on Saturday at Sliwa Stadium, but the Embry-Riddle offense played a bigger part as the Eagles (11-5, 4-1) took the day's opener, 7-2 before the second game was postponed indefinitely. The Gyrenes (5-11, 1-7) could muster just two runs against Corey Tufts, Clayton Wagner and Kyle Krebs, stranding 12 runners on the bases in the loss.

Corey Tufts started on the mound for the Blue and Gold with first pitch being moved up to 11:15 a.m. due to rain concerns. The junior right-hander worked around two baserunners in the first inning, striking out Nick Sacchetta and inducing a fly ball from Aaron Pigna to end the threat.

Austin Comesanas made his first start of 2015 for Ave Maria, giving up a one-out triple to Jake Cavender in the bottom of the first before Joshua Garcia brought the first run of the day in with an infield single.

Once again Tufts had to do damage control in the second, stranding two more Gyrene runners on the bases by fanning Tucker Starkey to end the inning.

The Eagles doubled their lead in the third when Liam Goodall collected an RBI groundout that plated Cavender after the Eagle third baseman singled to start the inning, moving to second on a Garcia base hit and then to third when Enderson Velasquez grounded out.

AMU cut the deficit in half in the fourth when Bobby Oliver doubled home Andy Hernandez from first base, but the home team replied with a three-run frame of their own in the last of the inning. After a Hunter Bruehl double, Kyle Buchanan singled his fellow senior home before moving to second on a balk from Comesanas. A sac bunt pushed Buchanan to third and Tobias Moreno accounted for the second run of the inning with a screamer back up the middle. A Garcia single put runners at first and second, and when a pitch got away from the Gyrene catcher, Moreno advanced to third and after the throw was late to the base the ball went to second to try to get Garcia, but it ended up in the outfield as Moreno scored for a 5-1 ERAU cushion.

Tufts went three-up, three-down in the fifth and did not give up a hit the rest of his outing. Wagner relieved Tufts to start the eighth and the visitors got to the lefty for a single run to trim the lead to 5-2. But again the Eagles answered in the home-half of the inning, getting two insurance runs to go up 7-2. Buchanan doubled home pinch runner Eric Simone after Bruehl reached on an error, and Buchanan later scored on a Moreno single downt the left field line.

Krebs took over for Wagner in the ninth, getting two quick outs before the Gyrenes extended the contest thanks to an Eagle error, an infield single and a walk to load the bases. A seven-pitch at-bat by Pigna ultimately ended in favor of Krebs with a called third strike to end the game.

Tufts (3-1) earned the win with a five-hit, one-run outing, tossing seven innings with nine strikeouts. Moreno went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored while Cavender scored twice with a pair of hits. Garcia finished 3-for-4 with an RBI while Buchanan, fresh off his late inning heroics on Friday night, went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

The win was the 399th in Head Coach Randy Stegall's career. He'll go for #400 when the Eagles take on No. 12 Bellevue tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at Sliwa Stadium.