DAYTONA BEACH, Florida - The Embry-Riddle baseball team's first games in nearly 700 days were slightly soured by the visiting Valdosta State Blazers on Friday as the Blazers took both ends of a twin bill, 3-2, and 13-5. The Eagles (0-2) made things very interesting in their final frame of the day's opener, but were unable to complete a seventh-inning comeback, and the Blazers (2-0) shot out to an early lead in the finale, never looking back, en route to an eight-run victory.

The two teams meet in the series finale tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 5 for a single, nine inning game at 1 p.m. at Sliwa Stadium

Game 1 - VSU 3, ERAU 2
The 2022 season opener provided plenty of pitching prowess and late-inning drama as the Blazers were able to hold on for a 3-2 victory even as the Eagles brought the potential tying run into scoring position, and potential winning run on base.

Garrett Goodall and VSU starter Elijah Gill twirled a pair of gems to start the 2022 campaign, the latter of which getting the slight advantage of the former, taking a no-hit bid into the sixth inning. Goodall was nearly as dominant, scattering softly struck hits over his outing, but two runs in the third inning for the Blazers gave them a lead they never relinquished.

Goodall was relieved by Casey Keller to start the sixth, and Keller faced the minimum before ERAU came to the plate in the bottom of the inning still in search of its first hit. Josh Reynolds finally broke through with a double to left center off of Gill, but he was stranded on second and the game moved to the final inning.

The Blazers tacked on an all-important insurance run in the top of the seventh thanks to a wild pitch, and that would probe to be the difference as the Eagles scored two runs in the last of the inning, starting on a Kevin Vittoria double to left that brought in Garrett Bogart. A sacrifice fly by Andrew Martinez plated Justus Burke to make it a one-score game, but Max Law grounded out with two men on to account for the 3-2 final.

Gill (W, 1-0) went six innings, allowing just one hit with nine strikeouts, while Goodall (L, 0-1) tossed five innings, surrendering seven hits, two runs (one earned), with seven Ks. Keller threw the final two innings for ERAU.

Game 2 - VSU 13, ERAU 5
The nightcap was all VSU from the jump as the visitors plated four runs in the first off of Eagle starter Kelsey Ward and scored in all but one of the seven innings to come away with the 13-5 win.

There were several bright spots for the home team, including solid contributions from freshmen like AJ Marinello who launched the first home run of his college career in his first-ever collegiate at-bat, a two-run shot to center that drove in Jeremy Kennedy-Davis. Marinello also added an RBI later in the game with a bases-loaded hit by pitch.

Tyler Shaw provided another highlight for the Blue and Gold with a perfect sixth inning, setting the Blazers down in order. All told, the Eagles used six pitchers, including four freshmen, racking up eight strikeouts of VSU batters.

Richey Lakes, Nick Hoffman, and Alex Britton all collected their first-ever college hits in the contest, while Tyler Castelli registered his first collegiate RBI.

ERAU couldn't do much against VSU starter JJ Finn (W, 1-0) who got the win in five strong innings of work. Tristan Harley, Keagan Perez, Shaw, and Blaine Hogue all made their college debuts on the mound for Embry-Riddle.