DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team suffered its first home loss of the season on Friday night, dropping a 10-5 decision to visiting Nova Southeastern at Sliwa Stadium in both team's Sunshine State Conference opener. The Eagles (6-2, 0-1 SSC) lost their seventh straight to NSU (4-4, 1-0 SSC) as the Sharks kept adding on runs over the second half of the game and the Eagles failed to make up the difference against the NSU pen.

The Eagles' Cody Crouse and Sharks' Devin Conn matched zeroes through the first two innings, each pitcher getting a double play to escape jams in the early going, but ERAU caught a break in the bottom of the third when an awkward hop off a Jake Malone batted ball skipped past NSU's second baseman Andrew Labosky, allowing Kyle Guttveg to score from second after he had doubled earlier in the inning for a 1-0 Eagle lead.

The ERAU advantage did not last long as the Sharks plated two runs in the fourth, the first on a Ian Acevedo single up the middle, plating Jake Anchia to tie things up. Acevedo then stole second and moved to third on a throwing error, later scoring on another fielding error for a 2-1 lead, a lead the Sharks would not give back the rest of the night.

Andrew Liberty tagged Crouse for a two-run homer in the fifth to take the lead to 4-1, and Conn continued to stifle the Eagle batters on his end.

The Sharks got two more runs in the seventh off of Joey Gerber, pushing the score to 7-1 before Zach Howard led off the last of the seventh with his sixth home run of the year, the Eagles' first hit since Malone's back in the third. The Eagles loaded the bases against Conn later in the inning, but a ground ball to third led to a force out to end the threat with NSU leading 7-2.

Labosky and Liberty each collected RBIs in the eighth, making it 9-2 in favor of the visitors, but the Blue and Gold answered in the bottom of the inning, starting with a Kyle Marsh single down the left field line against new NSU pitcher Brock Minich. Luis Olivier followed with a single to put runners on the corners, and two batters later, Cole Habig singled through the left side for an RBI knock. Justin Franklin collected a two-run double to make it 9-5, chasing Minich from the game and bringing Guttveg to the plate. Guttveg drew a walk before Peter Gomez pinch hit for the Eagles. During Gomez's at-bat, Franklin and Guttveg attempted to advance on a ball that popped out of the catcher Anchia's glove, but the throw from Anchia to third base and the tag by Acevedo was ruled to be in time by the field umpire, resulting in the second out and killing the Eagle rally.

A bases-loaded sac fly for the Sharks in the 9th accounted for the final run of the game before the Eagles went 1-2-3 against NSU's Joe Strzelecki to end the contest.

Conn (2-1) got the win in seven innings of work, allowing two runs on five hits with five strikeouts, while Crosue (1-1) received the loss in six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on five hits and four Ks. Olivier and Habig each had two hits, while Franklin recorded two RBIs.

The Eagles and Sharks meet back up tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 14 for a 1p.m. doubleheader to conclude the series.