DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team set a pair of inauspicious records in Friday night's series-opening loss to Saint Leo as the Eagles dropped a 12-inning marathon to the Lions, 9-7. The Eagles (28-19, 17-11) left 21 men on base and struck out 22 times versus SLU (24-24, 13-15) en route to the extra-inning loss. The Eagles can now only hope for a share of the Sunshine State Conference title, needing two wins tomorrow to get it.
The night started well enough for the Blue and Gold as the home team scored four two-out runs in the second to take an early lead.
Kyle Guttveg singled in the first run of the day and
Kyle Marsh brought in a pair with another base hit, while
Jake Malone scored on a wild pitch. However, the Lions answered back with a three-run third, thanks to an unfortunate hop of the infield lip and a pair of Eagle errors, trimming the deficit to 4-3.
Garrett Goodall allowed a leadoff homer in the fourth as Saint Leo tied things up at 4-4, but ERAU went right back in front when
Cole Habig singled home
John Devine in the bottom of the frame.
The score stayed 5-4 until the sixth when the Lions got a huge, three-run homer to take their first lead of the contest at 7-5.
Embry-Riddle loaded the bases in the seventh and Malone earned an RBI walk to make it 7-6, but that's all the Eagles could manage.
Kyle Marsh came up big with a solo homer in the eighth inning to tie the game at 7-7.
ERAU looked ready to walk it off in the ninth when
John Devine was hit by a pitch to start the inning, moving to second on a sac bunt and then to third when Habig and Marsh were hit by pitches in back-to-back plate appearances, but one of ERAU's 22 strikeouts left the bases loaded and sent the game to extras.
The 10th inning was another prime spot for the Eagles to win as
Zach Howard drew a leadoff walk before moving to second on another sac bunt. But back-to-back strikeouts kept the Eagles off the scoreboard and moved the game to the 11th.
In the 11th,
Kyle Guttveg led off with a walk, advancing to second on a Marsh single, but once again, the Eagles K'd in two straight at-bats to send the game to the 12th.
Saint Leo strung together three straight hits to score twice in the 12th, and once again the Eagles threatened, getting two men on with two outs, but a fly ball to right ended things in SLU's favor.
Dominic Jeancola (1-4) took the loss in 3.0 innings of relief, despite allowing just one run over his outing. Marsh finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
The Eagles and Lions meet up for a twin bill starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 11.
