DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team opened its 2017 season on Sunday with a thrilling comeback win over Valdosta State before falling victim to a tremendous pitching performance from Armstrong State's Tanner Hall in the second game of the day. The Eagles (1-1) mounted a three-run rally in the eighth of the opener to give former ERAU Head Coach Greg Guilliams' Valdosta State (2-1) team a 6-5 loss before true freshman Hall, in his collegiate debut, registered a complete game for Armstrong State (1-1) as the Pirates beat the Eagles, 4-2.

The Eagles hit the road for a Tuesday game at Flagler in St. Augustine. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Drsydale Field.

Game 1 - ERAU 6, VSU 5
Embry-Riddle trailed 5-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning in the opener, but the hosts rallied for three runs in the frame before Kenny Burkhead and Christopher Medina did the work on the mound and defensively in the ninth to secure the first win of the season.

Jonathan Camp started the bottom of the eighth with a single to center after VSU brought in Tristan Cone in relief, and Zach Howard put the Eagles in business with a double down the left field line, advancing Camp to third with no outs. Justin Franklin picked up his first hit as an Eagle with a single to left, allowing both Camp and Howard to score and tie the game at 5-5. After Cone retired two Eagles, Cody Bogart was called upon to pinch hit and the junior delivered the go-ahead RBI with a single back up the middle as Franklin scored from second after swiping the base earlier in Bogart's at-bat.

Burkhead, who came in to start the top of the eighth for the Eagles, returned for the ninth and the first batter he faced, Mason Miller, smoked a ball down the third base line that looked destined for extra bases, but Medina, playing in his first game as an Eagle made a fantastic play, diving towards the line to snag the ball before firing the ball over to Franklin at first for the first out of the inning. The next VSU batter also hit a ball towards Medina at third, but this one took a tough hop and the third baseman was again up to the challenge, fielding it throwing to first for the second out. Burkhead got the final out of the game by inducing a fly ball to left center.

Austin Lee got the nod on the bump for the Blue and Gold, working a solid six innings in his ERAU debut, scattering seven hits, allowing just one earned run with seven strikeouts. He was matched on the other side by Austin Hamilton as the Blazer lefty also went six innings, allowing three runs, two earned on five hits with nine strikeouts.

VSU got on the board first in the third on a sacrifice fly, but the Eagles answered with three runs in the home-half of the frame on RBIs from Medina, Robbie Hanlon and Howard, scoring Cole Habig, Logan Malphurs and Hanlon, respectively.

Valdosta State got an unearned run in each of the fourth and fifth to tie the game at 3-3 before scoring a pair of runs in the top of the seventh off of Eagle reliever Luke Helms.

Burkhead (1-0) got the win for the Eagles, going two innings with just one hit allowed. Freshman Kyle Guttveg finished 2-for-3 at the dish, while Howard went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run.

Game 2 - ASU 4, ERAU 2
The second game of the day belonged to ASU's Hall as the freshman, making his collegiate debut, went all nine innings, throwing 132 pitches while allowing just two runs on four hits and retiring 20 of the final 21 Eagle batters he faced.

The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the first off of Eagle starter Nick Dearing, but ERAU was able to answer in the second as Howard and Medina started the frame with singles before a sacrifice bunt moved them up a base each. Bogart doubled down the left field line off of Hall to score both runners and tie the game at 2-2, but that was the last hit the Eagles would get until the ninth.

Dearing settled in and gave way to Jackson McFarland in the fifth after working scoreless innings in the second, third and fourth. McFarland kept the game even through the sixth, but ASU scratched across a run in the seventh to take a 3-2 lead.

Kyle Lugar pitched the eighth for the Eagles and ASU tacked on another run to double their lead at 4-2 before Vincent Rosace pitched a scoreless ninth for the Blue and Gold.

Hall got the first out of the ninth before Camp singled to break his streak of 18 straight retired batters, but Hall got Howard to fly out and Medina to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game and secure the 4-2 win for the Pirates.

McFarland (0-1) was tagged with the loss in three innings of relief, while Bogart's two-RBI double accounted for the only runs for the Eagles.