SAINT LEO, Fla. - The 2018 season came to a close on Saturday for the Embry-Riddle baseball team as the Eagles ended the season with a 10-7 win over the No. 13 Saint Leo Lions after dropping a 5-1 decision in the day's opener. For the first time since the 1991 season, the Eagles (20-30, 9-21 SSC) won their final game of the year, while the Lions (38-11, 21-9) couldn't complete the sweep of the Blue and Gold.

Game 1 - SLU 5, ERAU 1
The home team scored twice in the first inning and then after the Eagles got their lone run in the fifth, the Lions added insurance tallies in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames to secure the series victory.

Garrett Goodall pitched 6.1 innings to start the game for the Eagles, allowing just three earned runs while scattering nine hits while fanning five SLU batters, but Shane Haight tossed eight strong innings on the other side, allowing just the one run in the fourth when Zach Howard tripled in Luis Olivier. Peyton Isaacson tossed the final inning without allowing a run.

Kyle Guttveg was the lone Eagle with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-3.

Game 2 - ERAU 10, SLU 7
Two big innings in the finale sent the Eagles to their 20th win of the year, but the Lions made things very interesting in the bottom of the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate until Nick Dearing entered and escaped the jam to earn his first career save.

ERAU struck first with a Howard RBI single in the opening inning, bringing in Cole Habig for a 1-0 lead, but the lead quickly disappeared as the hosts answered with a run of their own in the first, but Aidan Brady, making his final appearance as an Eagle, got out of the frame without any further damage.

Embry-Riddle took the lead for good in the second when Guttveg doubled home Justin Franklin, and that was the last run either team would score for awhile as both Brady and Sargent McCabe pitched scoreless third innings.

The Eagles had their first big inning in the fourth, starting with a Christian Jaworski single, but after two quick outs, the Eagles looked likely to come up empty until Kyle Marsh doubled down the left field line, bringing in Jaworski for a 3-1 lead. After Olivier singled, Howard brought them both in with a double to center, pushing the advantage to 5-1.

Brady pitched a perfect fourth and then a scoreless fifth prior to the Eagles getting their sixth run of the game when Olivier doubled to right center, driving in Marsh who had singled to start the frame.

Brady was finally chased from the contest in the home sixth as SLU scored three runs, but Joey Gerber entered and got the final two outs with two men on base, keeping ERAU in front, 6-4.

Saint Leo crept closer in the seventh with a lone run, and this time Matthew Russell came in to put out the fire, keeping the tying run at third with a harmless fly out.

Embry-Riddle saved some of its best offense until last, scoring four runs in the ninth to extend the lead to 10-5. Franklin lofted a one-out homer to right in his last-ever collegiate at-bat before the Eagles started a little two-out rally with a Jaworski single. After a Guttveg double to put men at second and third, Cole Habig came through with a two-run single to left and Marsh capped the scoring with a double down the third base line to plate Habig for a five-run cushion.

Russell got two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth before the Lions mounted their own two-out rally, loading the bases before a two-run single made the score 10-7. Dearing made his second appearance of the day with the potential tying run at the plate and coaxed a ground ball that Marsh made a great play on to record the force out at second, securing the win.

Brady (3-6) got the win in 5.1 innings of work, while Dearing picked up the save.

ERAU pounded out 20 hits as a team, the 10th-highest total in a single game in program as Marsh led the way with a 4-for-6 effort with two RBIs and two runs. Howard drove in three runs on two hits, while Olivier, Franklin and Guttveg all finished with three hits and an RBI. Habig was 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs and Jaworski went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs.

Franklin's ninth-inning homer was the team's 66 for the year, a new program record.

Marsh led a trio of Eagles with over a .600 slugging percentage with a .653 mark, fifth-best single-season clip, while Howard's .642 slugging percentage ranks eighth and Olivier's .617 is 11th.

Those three also etched their names in the home run record book as Howard's 20 long balls shattered the previous record of 15, and Olivier's 13 and Marsh's 11 are both in the top-10 in a single-season. Howard's 29 homers in his three-year career are the most in program history, and Olivier's 18 in his two-year career rank ninth.

Olivier's 18 multi-RBI games in 2018 is the second-most in program history and both Marsh and Guttveg put together 21-game hitting streaks during the year, tying for third-best hitting streaks in ERAU history.