WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team weathered two delays on Saturday to even their weekend Sunshine State Conference series with Rollins with a 12-5 win at Alfond Stadium. The Eagles (27-18, 16-10 SSC) snapped a three-game losing streak thanks to a 17-hit effort against the Tars (25-20, 12-14 SSC) and guaranteed themselves a winning record in league play.
Seven Eagles registered multiple hits, while
Cole Habig and
Jake Malone each drove in three runs for the Blue and Gold.
Payton Rice was resilient on the mound for ERAU, tossing six innings, scattering seven hits with four strikeouts while giving his team a chance to win, and they gave him his fourth win of the season.
It was actually Rollin to score first, taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the opening inning without the benefit of a hit; however, the Eagles answered back right away in the second after
Zach Howard and
Kirk Sidwell collected back-to-back singles to start the inning,
John Devine singled Howard home to tie the game before Malone singled in Sidwell for a 2-1 lead. Habig got his first RBI of the day with a sac fly to score Devine later in the inning and the Eagles would never trail again.
ERAU tacked on two runs in the fourth on a failed pickoff attempt with Devine and
Josh Reynolds on the bases, making it 5-1 Eagles, but some weather rolled in to Winter Park in the bottom of the fourth inning and the Tars were able to scratch across three runs despite two separate delays to cut the Eagle lead to 5-4.
In the fifth, Sidwell doubled to right with
Luis Olivier at second base, scoring the Eagle catcher and pushing the advantage to 6-4. Rice delivered a scoreless home fifth and the Eagles doubled their lead in the sixth when Olivier singled to center to plate both Habig and
Kyle Guttveg, making it 8-4.
Rice had another scoreless frame in the bottom of the sixth and the visitors put the game away with two more runs in the seventh, both runs coming on a Malone single to score Sidwell and Reynolds for a 10-4 Eagle cushion.
Joey Gerber relived Rice to start the home seventh and went 1-2-3. The Tars did get a run in the eighth off a sacrifice fly, but
Dominic Jeancola stranded a pair of runners to send the game to the ninth with the Eagles leading 10-5.
Habig added some insurance runs in the ninth when he homered to left, a two-run shot that made it a dozen runs for Embry-Riddle, and Jeancola worked around a one-out double in the last Rollins at-bat to secure the seven-run win.
Rice (4-6) got the win for ERAU, while Devine and Sidwell each had three hits and Habig and Malone each had three RBIs. Guttveg, Habig, Howard, Reynolds and Malone all recorded two hits.
The series finale is scheduled for tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Winter Park.
