DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A four-hour delay did nothing to cool off the offense of the Embry-Riddle baseball team as the Eagles plated 12 runs en route to a 12-6 victory over No. 12 Florida Southern on Saturday. The Eagles (18-9) picked up their fifth win over a ranked NCAA II team this season, while sending the Moccasins (16-7) to their first loss in the month of March. The series is tied at 1-1 with the rubber game slated for a 12 p.m. start time tomorrow, Sunday, March 20 at Sliwa Stadium.
The first three innings were dominated by the starting pitchers as the Eagles'
Corey Tufts and the Mocs' Cameron Hanes combined to face just two over the minimum, sending the game to the fourth with no score.
Tufts, who until the fourth had held FSC without a hit, was touched up for a leadoff homer from Logan Browning to begin the fourth as Florida Southern took a 1-0 lead. Sam Machonis followed with a single before stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch. A walk put runners on the corners and Jason Sierra's RBI single through the left side made it 2-0 in favor of the visitors. A deep fly ball in the next at-bat allowed both runners to advance a base before Tufts issues a walk to Shawn Sanders, loading the bases with one away. The senior from Clermont did some of his best pitching of the day over the next to batters, striking out Ryan Frost before getting a weak ground ball from Kevin Fuller that
Joshua Garcia took care of to end the threat and keep the damage to just two runs.
Like Tufts, Hanes faced trouble in the Eagle fourth, starting right away when
Enderson Velasquez homered to left to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
Jonathan Camp singled before a passed ball moved him to second and a ground out from Garcia advanced him to third.
Kyle Zirbes worked a full count against Hanes before smoking a ball back up the middle that hit off Hanes, allowing Camp to score and Zirbes to reach first safely. Hanes was forced to exit the game after being hit by the batted ball and Tyler Knowles came in on short notice, giving up back-to-back hits to
Matt Jacobs and
Zach Howard, the first an RBI double, the second an RBI single as the hosts took their first lead of the game at 4-2.
Knowles got out of the fourth without any further Eagle runs scoring, but Tufts kept the momentum in the ERAU dugout by working around a two-out triple from Machonis in the fifth to retire the side.
The Blue and Gold struck for three more runs in the fifth to push its lead to 7-2, two of which coming off a two-run home run by Zirbes, the first of his ERAU career.
Tufts again delivered a shutdown inning in the sixth, but was chased from the game in the seventh after hitting a batter and walking a batter preceded a three-run homer from Mitch Reeves that cut the Eagle lead to 7-5.
Joey Swinarski came in for Tufts and got the final two outs of the seventh with fly balls to right.
ERAU got back a couple of runs in the home seventh on
Matt Jacobs' single up the middle with the bases loaded. Camp, Garcia and Zirbes started the inning with three straight singles before Mitch McCarthy was called on to get out of the jam. Jacobs took a 3-1 pitch right back up the box to put some distance between the Eagles and Mocs at 9-5.
Swinarski left a runner at third in the eighth and Embry-Riddle salted the game away in its' half of the frame, scoring three runs to make it 12-5. Zirbes picked up an RBI on a hit by pitch with the bases loaded before Jacobs recorded his fourth and fifth RBIs of the game with a double to left.
FSC put together four hits in the ninth, plating one run, but Swinarski ended the game by striking out Walker Burgess with the bases loaded.
Tufts (6-1) got the win in 6.1 innings of work, allowing five runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Swinarski picked up his second save of the season in 2.2 innings of relief.
The middle of the Eagle lineup did serious damage for the Blue and Gold, starting with Jacobs' 3-for-5 performance for five RBIs. Zirbes finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored, while Camp was 3-for-3 with four runs to go along with two walks. Garcia went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a pair of runs.
The win marked the Eagles' first-ever against Florida Southern in Daytona Beach.
