WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team split a Saturday doubleheader with Rollins, dropping the first game 11-6 before claiming the series finale, 7-4. The Eagles (9-5) dropped the series to the Tars (9-6) after Rollins won Friday's opener.
Game 1 - RC 11, ERAU 6Shoddy defense once again proved to be the Eagles' undoing in the first game of Saturday's twin bill as Rollins went up 7-1 before pulling away later for the 11-6 final. Four of RC's runs were unearned as the Eagles committed four errors in the contest.
The Tars grabbed the momentum early on, scoring a pair of runs on a three-error play in the home-half of the first to take a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles failed to get on the scoreboard until the top of the fourth when
Liam Goodall tripled with one out, scoring on a throwing error on the relay, cutting the Tars' lead to 2-1.
Kenny Burkhead, who had allowed just the two unearned runs in the first, found himself in trouble in the last of the fourth. Rollins too advantage of an error andregistered four hits in the inning, growing its lead to 7-1.
Dominic Jeancola came out for the fifth for the Blue and Gold, and the sophomore tossed the next three frames, limiting the Tars to just one run on three hits.
ERAU tried to make things interesting in the sixth, scoring two runs on two hits, including a
Jonathan Camp single that scored
Kyle Zirbes, but the Eagles could get no closer than 8-3 in the inning.
It appeared the Eagles had something going in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs, but
Enderson Velasquez was unlucky on a smoked ball up the middle that turned into a double play, allowing one run to score for the Eagles to trim the lead to 8-4.
Zach Howard brought in an Eagle run in the eighth with an RBI single to score Goodall after the Eagle senior doubled to start the inning, but the Tars put the game out of reach with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Zirbes scored from third in the ninth, but that's all the runs the visitors would get in the game, falling 11-6.
Burkhead (3-1) got the loss in four innings of work, while Zirbes, Camp and Goodall all registered two hits.
Game 2 - ERAU 7, RC 4The second game started all Embry-Riddle as the visitors took out some frustrations on the Rollins starter Brett Scafidi, beginning with Moreno launching a ball over the right field fence for a leadoff home run, the first time the Eagles led of the game with a homer since Steven Howard on Jan. 27, 2007.
Zirbes walked with two outs before Camp singled and
Zach Howard singled to load the bases for Velasquez. Velasquez grounded a pitch to third and the Tar third baseman overthrew first, allowing two Eagles to score for a 3-0 Eagle lead.
Nick Dearing faced the minimum in the bottom of the first, and ERAU pushed across two more runs in the second, both on a Camp single up the middle, giving the Eagles a 5-0 advantage.
Rollins scored a single run in the second, but Dearing worked around a two-on, one-out situation, getting a double play to end the threat.
Both teams went quietly in the third and fourth, but RC scratched across its second run of the day after a triple and wild pitch from Dearing.
Rollins made it two straight innings with a run when a walk and subsequent triple cut the Embry-Riddle cushion to 5-3, but Zirbes made a fantastic dive and throw in the next at-bat to save a run.
The Blue and Gold responded in the top of the seventh, scoring two runs on Howard's two-out double to deep left, scoring both Goodall and Camp after they each singled, giving ERAU a 7-3 advantage.
Troy Naab, faced the minimum in both the seventh and eighth, closed the game out in the ninth, despite a run scoring after Howard lost a fly ball in the lights and a base hit bunt brought him in.
Naab earned the three-inning save, the first of his career, while Dearing improved to 3-0 in six innings of work.
Camp was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs, while Howard went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
The Eagles are back in Daytona Beach for a March 2 game against Ave Maria. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Sliwa Stadium.
