FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Nova Southeastern remains a thorn in the Embry-Riddle baseball team's side after a 5-2 Shark victory on Friday night, opening the two team's Sunshine State Conference series. The Eagles (3-5, 0-1 SSC) took one-run leads twice over the Sharks (7-4, 3-1 SSC), but a four-run fourth inning for the home team was the difference as NSU improved to 10-0 against the Eagles since ERAU transitioned to the NCAA II and Sunshine State Conference.
The Blue and Gold stranded 10 runners in the game, perhaps none bigger than when the Eagles had the bases loaded in the first with just one out before allowing NSU starter Nathan Campbell to escape the jam with a pair of pop ups.
Luis Olivier brought in the game's first run with a single to left, scoring
Kyle Guttveg from second after he had led the game off with a base hit before advancing to second on a
John Devine sac bunt. With a 1-0 lead, ERAU loaded the bags after a
Kirk Sidwell walk, but Campbell induced pop ups from
Zach Howard and
Cole Habig to move the game to the bottom of the first inning.
Payton Rice did some escaping himself when he ended both the home first and second frames with strikeouts with runners on base, but he couldn't wrangle out of the third unscathed as NSU tied the game after three straight hits.
The Eagles pulled ahead again in the fourth, this time on a Devine single to left center, plating
Cody Forster for a 2-1 lead. But Campbell got
Kyle Marsh to ground into an inning-ending double play to swing the momentum back to the NSU dugout and the home team capitalized, scoring four runs on five hits to take a 5-2 lead, a score that would hold the rest of the way.
Both starters gave way to the bullpens in the sixth and ERAU's
Dominic Jeancola and NSU's JP Williams were nothing short of dominant the rest of the night, allowing just one hit between them with 11 strikeouts.
ERAU would threaten just once more in the seventh after a Devine leadoff single and a fielding error allowed Sidwell to reach, but once again Howard was retired to end the threat.
Rice (0-3) took the loss in five innings of work, while Jeancola faced just one batter over the minimum in three innings of relief.
Both Guttveg (2-for-5) and Devine (2-for-4) registered multiple hits.
The Eagles will look to answer back tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. against the Sharks.
