VALDOSTA, Ga. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team suffered its first losses of the 2018 season on Saturday afternoon, dropping both ends of a doubleheader to Valdosta State, 3-2 in 10 innings and 9-3 in seven frames. The Eagles (2-2) dropped the three-game series to the Blazers (2-1), despite taking the opener on Friday night, 4-3. The Eagle offense managed just seven total hits on Saturday, while scoring four runs.

Embry-Riddle returns to Daytona Beach to start a nine-game home stand, starting with a four-game series against Felician next weekend. ERAU and Felician open their series on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. before the series conclusion comes on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Game 1 - VSU 3, ERAU 2 (10)
Just like in Friday night's game, the Eagles held a lead through much of the contest, only this time, the visitors couldn't hold on, eventually losing the game in extra-innings to VSU.

Cody Crouse was solid in his ERAU debut, tossing five innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits with three strikeouts. The senior from Valrico, Fla. stranded a runner at third to end the first inning, stranding another runner in the second as the game moved to the third still scoreless.

Embry-Riddle finally managed to break through in the fourth when Jake Malone started things with a leadoff single, moving to second on a wild pitch and then scoring the game's first run when Kyle Marsh reached on a throwing error. Marsh, who ended up at second following the error, scored on Zach Howard's RBI double, giving the Eagles a 2-0 lead. ERAU threatened for more in the inning, loading the bases, but a fielder's choice off the bat of Cody Bogart ended the threat.

Crouse kept the Blazers off the scoreboard in the fourth, but an Eagle error in the fifth eventually led to the home team's first run, cutting their deficit in half, 2-1.

Joey Gerber took over for Crouse to start the sixth, retiring the next six batters to keep ERAU up by a run heading into the eighth frame.

A single and stolen bases put a VSU runner in scoring position in the last of the eighth, and a two-out double tied the game for the Blazers at 2-2.

Neither team put a man on base in the ninth, but ERAU was able to get Kyle Guttveg to second in the 10th inning after a single and passed ball with one away. However, VSU's John Mason kept the game tied by getting a pair of ground outs from Malone and Marsh.

Aidan Brady was on the mound for the Eagles in the 10th, and a one-out walk came back to bite him. With men on first and second with two outs, Luke Suchon lifted a blooper into no-man's land in left field where no Eagle defender could get to it, allowing the runner from second to score and give the Blazers the 3-2 win.

ERAU got just four hits off of four VSU pitchers, while striking out 10 times. The pitching trio of Crouse, Gerber and Brady finished with six hits allowed and seven Ks.

Game 2 - VSU 9, ERAU 2 (7)
Contrary to the series' first two games, the finale was only close briefly in the middle innings as the Blazers scored early against Eagle starter Sam Brunnig, chasing him in the third before tacking on runs later in the game, while Hunter Jones and Tristan Cone held ERAU hitters to just three hits over seven innings.

An inning-ending double play squashed the Eagles' offensive effort in the top of the first, and two hits and an error in the bottom of the inning allowed Valdosta State to take an early, 2-0 lead.

The Eagles put two men on in the second, but again couldn't get a run, and Jones faced the minimum in the Eagle third before his team got a third run in the last of the inning before Nick Dearing got out of the third with no further damage.

Embry-Riddle was able to score a couple of runs in the fourth, the first on a bases-loaded hit by pitch courtesy of Justin Franklin, and the second on a Jackson McFarland sacrifice fly, scoring Cole Habig to cut the VSU lead to 3-2.

The Blazers answered right away though, getting those two runs back and then one more, making it 6-2. The final tally came in the sixth when Max Abramson hit a three-run homer to put the game out of reach.