GAMEDAY CENTRAL
NAIA No. 16 Embry-Riddle (31-15) at NCAA II No. 10 Tampa (30-11)
DATE: Tuesday, April 21, 2015
FIRST PITCH: 5 p.m. (ET)
CITY: Tampa, Fla.
SITE: University of Tampa Baseball Field
LIVE STATS: Embry-Riddle Gameday Network
LIVE VIDEO: Embry-Riddle Gameday Network
SERIES: Tampa leads 5-4
CURRENT STREAK: Tampa - W2

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EMBRY-RIDDLE
The Eagles begin their final Sun Conference series on Friday against a Fire team that has a three-game winning streak against the Blue and Gold. Embry-Riddle sits in second in The Sun Conference standings and still has a mathematical chance to share the league regular season crown if ERAU wins out and Northwood gets swept by St. Thomas this weekend. On Wednesday, it was announced that Embry-Riddle would once again be one of the nine NAIA National Championship Opening Round hosts and will get an automatic berth to the 45-team field.

The Eagles have raised their team batting average by 20 points over the last two weekend series, now standing at .308 as a team with 442 hits and 277 RBIs. Enderson Velasquez is hitting .403 with 60 hits and 25 RBIs while scoring 32 runs while Liam Goodall, the reigning Sun Conference Player of the Week, is at .385 with 62 hits and a team-best 46 RBIs.

Embry-Riddle has a 3.34 team ERA in 356.0 innings, striking out 330 batters and allowing just a .241 opponent batting average. Tyler Cyr (6-2, 2.66 ERA) has won his last five starts, allowing just four earned runs in 31.2 innings over that span. Zac Grotz continues to be impressive out of the pen, sporting a 0.82 ERA with a 6-1 record and seven saves in 24 appearances.

TAMPA
Jason Beck's team enters the weekend series at 32-16 overall and 14-9 in The Sun Conference. Southeastern has won its last two TSC series against USCB and Warner, and still has a game to make up against Thomas before entering the conference tournament.

First baseman Willi Martin has done an admirable job of replacing TSC Player of the Year Bryan Muniz, hitting .353 with 19 doubles and 12 home runs with 52 RBIs and 31 runs scored. As a team, the Fire are hitting .286 with 100 doubles, 15 triples and 32 homers.

The Fire pitching staff has a 4.30 ERA in 401.2 innings this season, allowing a .261 batting average to opponents with 304 strikeouts. Patrick Kinney, Jordan Gard and Clay Rideout have been the three weekend starters for SEU, combining for 16 wins and 143 Ks.

EAGLES IN THE TOP 25
Team stats:
4th - Assists per Game (11.4)
5th - Triples (25)
7th - Batters Struck Out (357)
9th - Assists (525)
19th - Hits (473)
22nd - ERA (3.31)
19th - Opponent Batting Average (.239)

Individual stats:
3rd - Zac Grotz, Earned Runs Allowed (4)
3rd - Zac Grotz, Total Runs Allowed (6)
4th - Zac Grotz, ERA (0.69)
7th - Zac Grotz, Opponent Batting Average (.160)
7th - Stetson Nelson, Innings Pitched (85.1)
13th - Liam Goodall, Triples (6)
19th - Zac Grotz, Saves (7)
23rd - Liam Goodall, Hits (66)
23rd - Tyler Cyr, Strikeouts (76)

EAGLE BASEBALL BY THE NUMBERS
1,048 - Wins in program history
419 - Career wins by Head Coach Randy Stegall
389 - Conference wins in program history
309.2 - Innings pitched by Stetson Nelson in his two seasons with the Eagles (4th all-time)
242 - Nelson's career strikeouts (4th all-time)
190 - Career hits by Liam Goodall (8th all-time)
20 - Conference Championships in program history
2.5:1 - Embry-Riddle's current strikeout to walk ratio (310:132)

27 SEASONS OF EAGLE BASEBALL
The 2015 season marks the 27th edition of Eagle baseball and Embry-Riddle athletics overall. Embry-Riddle is 1,048-448-1 in 27 seasons, capturing 15 conference regular season titles, five conference tournament titles, seven regional crowns, claiming 31 NAIA All-America honors, 37 Honorable Mention All-American honors and advancing to the NAIA World Series 12 times (T-3rd most in NAIA history).