DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A wild Saturday at Sliwa Stadium ended in a doubleheader split between 16th-ranked Embry-Riddle and (RV) Southeastern as the Eagles exploded for 19 runs (the most in the Randy Stegall era) in a 19-0 shutout before dropping a 4-3 contest in the series rubber match. Southeastern (34-17, 16-10) took the series over the Eagles (31-15, 18-8) two games to one and secured the fourth seed for The Sun Conference Tournament. The Eagles are tied with St. Thomas for second in the league standings with both teams having a game to make up from previous series. ERAU holds the tiebreaker over the Bobcats from its series victory earlier in the season.

Embry-Riddle hits the road for a game at NCAA II Tampa on Tuesday, April 21 at 5 p.m. before the regular season finale on Sunday, April 26 versus Ave Maria at 3 p.m. at Sliwa Stadium. The contest against the Gyrenes will be Senior Day for the Blue and Gold.

Game 1 • ERAU 19, SEU 0 (7 innings)
The Eagles snapped a four-game losing streak against the Fire with a 19-0 blowout in the day's opener, striking for 10 runs in the first inning and never looking back. Stetson Nelson was superb for the Eagles, going the distance for his third complete game of the season, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out seven Fire batters. It was Nelson's first shutout of the season.

Nelson struck out two and faced the minimum in the top of the first and the Eagles put the game effectively out of reach in the home first, sending 15 batters to the plate, recording eight hits and 10 runs, chasing starter Jordan Gard before he was able to record an out.

Moreno singled to start the inning (the first of seven consecutive hits for him on the day), followed by a Jake Cavender walk and a Liam Goodall triple that plated two runs. After an Enderson Velasquez RBI single, Joshua Garcia singled up the middle before Matt Jacobs singled. Jacobs was the final batter Gard faced as F.T. Corso relieved him. Kyle Buchanan walked and Jordan Brown singled as ERAU went up 5-0 and Ryan Maxon drew a bases-loaded walk for an RBI. Moreno singled for the second time in the frame and Cavender drew a walk as the Eagles enjoyed an 8-0 lead. A couple of fielder's choices recorded the first two outs of the inning before Garcia singled to account for the 10th and final run of the first inning.

Nelson faced the minimum in the second and the third, and his offense added two runs in the bottom of the second for a 12-0 cushion.

Nelson worked around a base hit in the fourth before Moreno doubled in Brown in the fourth for a 13-0 lead, and after three straight groundouts from SEU in the fifth the Eagles added three more runs for a 16-0 advantage. Buchanan tripled in two runs then scored on a Brown single in the frame.

Nelson faced his biggest threat in the sixth when Southeastern put runners on the corners, but a groundout from Josiel Colon ended the frame and preserved the shutout.

Goodall led off the home sixth with a home run before Hunter Bruehl doubled and Buchanan followed with a homer of his own, accounting for the 19-0 final score.

A leadoff single from Luis Diaz was erased on a 5-3-6 double play and Nelson fanned Hunter Bonner to end the game.

Nelson improved to 6-3 on the season in his 105 pitch effort. The senior lefty moved into a tie for seventh on the all-time wins list (23) at Embry-Riddle, a tie for fifth in career complete games (10) and a tie for fourth in career shutouts (4).

Moreno finished 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored while Goodall, Velasquez, Garcia and Buchanan each had two hits. Brown collected three hits and two RBIs while Buchanan registered four RBIs, Garcia had two RBIs and Goodall ended with three runs batted in.

Game 2 • SEU 4, ERAU 3
The series finale was a tightly-contested one for nine innings as the Eagles fell behind 4-1 early before rallying late, but the Fire held on for the one-run victory.

Patrick Kinney was strong for 8.2 innings for Southeastern before Cole Yoder entered with the potential tying run in scoring position to record the final out of the contest.

The Eagles got on the board first when Goodall brought in Moreno from third on a groundout. Moreno had doubled before moving to third on a Cavender groundout int he bottom of the first inning.

Southeastern quickly answered against Corey Tufts, getting an unearned run in the second when Daniel Acevedo grounded out to third as Luis Diaz scored. Diaz walked, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error before touching home on the Acevedo ground ball.

Kinney set the Eagles down in order in the home second and Southeastern scored three in the third to take a 4-1 lead. Two big Eagle errors in the frame led to two unearned runs and Tufts was relieved by Zac Grotz with two on and one out. Grotz struck out Sean Anderson before getting Acevedo to fly out to center to end the threat, but the damage was already done.

ERAU got a run back in the bottom of the third after Cody Bogart walked and Moreno singled. Cavender bunted Kyle Zirbes (Bogart's courtesy runner) and Moreno up a base each before Goodall singled in the second Eagle run of the game. But Kinney retired both Velasquez and Garcia to keep his team in front, 4-2.

From the fourth through the sixth, both pitchers were dominant as neither offense came close to threatening and the game moved to the seventh with the same score, 4-2 in favor of SEU.

The Fire got a two-out single from Aaron Sheaks in the seventh and he then stole seocnd and third before Willi Matin walked to put runners on the corners against Grotz, but the Eagle closer got Colon to pop up to end the inning.

Cavender recorded a one-out double in the eighth, but was out at third when Goodall grounded a ball back to Kinney on the mound and the rally was prematurely ended.

Grotz finished off the Fire in the top of the ninth before a late rally from the Eagles resulted in some drama. Garcia tripled to start the inning, but Kinney got a weak pop up from Jacobs for out number one. Buchanan struck out swinging on a ball in the dirt, and on the throw to first Garcia broke home and scored to cut the lead to 4-3. With two outs Brown hit a ball to short that resulted in a throwing error, keeping the Eagles' hopes alive. Hunter Bruehl was called upon to pinch hit and after working a full count drew a walk to push the potential tying run to second.

Yoder came into the game to face Moreno and on a 1-2 pitch the Eagle centerfielder lifted a ball to shallow left center that was caught for the final out.

Tufts (7-4) was saddled with the loss in his 2.1 inning start while Grotz tossed the final 6.2 innings in relief, surrendering just three hits and one walk while fanning 10 SEU batters.