DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team capped a perfect weekend on Sunday afternoon with its second straight walk-off homer to beat Felician, completing the four-game sweep thanks to a
Zach Howard long ball in the bottom of the ninth, giving ERAU a 9-7 victory. The Eagles (6-2) trailed for most of the game, but took a one-run lead into the ninth before the Golden Falcons (0-4) pushed two runs across to go up 7-6.
Kyle Marsh, just as he did on Saturday night, led off the ninth with a no-doubter down the left field line to tie things up and serve as the prequel to Howard's heroics two batters later.
The Eagles hit 11 home runs over the weekend, the most-ever hit by any team in a single series at Sliwa Stadium since it opened in 2001. The back-to-back walk-off wins were the first for Embry-Riddle since the Eagles beat Tampa, 8-7 and 11-10 (10) back in March of 2016. This marked the first back-to-back walk-off homers for the Eagles in program history.
It was actually the visitors that started the offensive fireworks when Jason Polgano hit a three-run homer down the right field line in the first inning off Eagle starter
J.C. Carrell. However, the home team answered quickly in the bottom of the first, pushing across two runs, the first on an
Alex Dodd triple to right center, scoring
Jake Malone, and the second when Marsh plated Dodd with a sacrifice fly to left center.
Carrell and Felician starter Michael Gutierrez settled in over the next few innings, neither allowing a run until the visitor fourth when a Carrell wild pitch with the bases loaded allowed the fourth run to score for the Falcons and a sac fly on the next pitch made it 5-2.
ERAU couldn't get anything going against Gutierrez in the fourth or fifth, but
Justin Franklin teed a Gutierrez pitch up for a two-run shot in the sixth, sending the ball deep to right, trimming the lead to 5-4.
Nick Dearing, who came in to pitch the sixth, worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by striking out Jason Aponte to keep ERAU down just a run, and the offense capitlalized as
Luis Olivier hit a sac fly to shallow right center with the bases loaded, scoring Malone to tie the game at 5-5. Howard, in the following at-bat, took a 2-2 pitch into left field to bring in Dodd from second and give ERAUÂ its first lead of the day.
Joey Gerber worked around a leadoff single in the Felician eighth, and the Eagles threatened to tack on some insurance runs in the bottom of the inning when Franklin led off with a double to right, but two strikeouts and a fly out ended the Blue and Gold rally.
In the ninth, L.T. Struble drew a five-pitch walk, moving to second on Danny Healey's base hit.
Dominic Jeancola came in and got the double play ground ball he wanted, but the Eagles could only get one as the throw from second to first was thrown wide, allowing Struble to score the tying run and pushing Matt Diesel to second with one out. Jeancola struck out Jason Polgano for out number two, but Aponte dropped in a single in front of Howard in left, scoring the go-ahead run from second.
Marsh saw just one pitch from Struble before launching a towering drive to left to start the bottom of the ninth, his fourth homer in two days, tying the game at 7-7. Olivier reached on a throwing error by the Felician third baseman and Howard worked a 2-2 count before ending the series with a 400-plus foot bomb to center.
Howard went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, while Dodd finished a homer short of the cycle, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. The win went to Jeancola (1-0) in an inning of work.
It was the first four-game sweep for the Eagles since April 16-17 against Edward Waters.
ERAUÂ takes nearly two weeks off before hosting Nova Southeastern to kick off the Sunshine State Conference schedule on Friday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. The two teams will then play a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.
