DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team claimed its fourth series win of 2020 with a Saturday split at Sliwa Stadium, dropping the day's opener to Felician 6-1 before claiming the series finale 2-1.

The Eagles (15-6) head to Tusculum next week to play a pair against the Pioneers, beginning Tuesday, March 10 at 6 p.m.

Game 1 - Felician 6, ERAU 1
The Golden Falcons got their first-ever win against Embry-Riddle in Saturday's first game, scoring the game's final five runs while Alex Schwartz kept the Eagle offense off-balance, holding ERAU to just six hits as the Falcons evened the weekend series.

Payton Rice and Schwartz were locked in a 1-1 pitcher's duel through the first five frames, but unfortunate sequencing in the top of the sixth broke the deadlocked and pushed the visitors in front. An infield single started a two-out rally for Felician, and a throwing error on a ball that skipped away from home, allowed the go-ahead run to score before two more runners scored in the inning as Felician went up 4-1.

Schwartz went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth and the Falcons added runs in the eighth and ninth as the Eagles didn't offer much of a threat the rest of the way.

Rice (L, 2-2) struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings, while Mike Lawson and Josh Reynolds both went 2-for-4 in the contest.

Game 2 - ERAU 2, Felician 1 (7 inn.)
The Eagles claimed the series thanks to a massive pitching performance by four Eagles, taking advantage of a crucial Falcon error en route to their 15th win of the season.

Felician scored first, plating a run in the first inning against starter John Barone, and ERAU stranded two in the bottom half against Michael Guttierez.

Barone got two outs in the second, but exited the game after two men reached, and Kelsey Ward took over, getting the final out of the frame with a strikeout.

Embry-Riddle again stranded a pair in the second, but in the third the Eagles came through, starting with a leadoff walk from Lawson. Reynolds singled to right center with one out, moving Lawson to third, and a muffed throw by the Felician first baseman on a ground ball from Luis Olivier tied the game as Lawson was able to come home. John Devine's single up the middle in the next at-bat gave ERAU the lead as Reynolds scored for a 2-1 advantage.

Ward worked smoothly through the fourth and fifth, leaving in the sixth after a leadoff single. Joe Balsam came in and after a single to left got a ground out for the first out of the frame. Samuel Brunnig was called upon to get the final two outs of the frame and the Eagle closer did, fanning pinch hitter Shawn Vazquez and then inducing a pop up to right from Anthony Santoro to strand the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

Embry-Riddle threatened to add an insurance run or two in the bottom of the sixth, but Guttierez kept the Felician deficit at one run, sending the game to the seventh.

Felician got a leadoff single before a sacrifice bunt moved a pinch runner to second against Brunnig. A walk put the potential go-ahead run on base, but Brunnig got an infield fly and then put the exclamation point on the weekend with a strikeout of Anthony Condito to earn his first save of 2020.

Ward (W, 4-2) got the win in 3.1 innings of relief, as Cody Forster was the only Eagle to register multiple hits, finishing with two.

Notes
• The Falcons scored first in all three games of the series
• ERAU is now 6-1 all-time against the Falcons
• The loser in all three games this weekend scored just one run
• ERAU's four hits in the finale was the lowest total of the season for the Eagles