DAYTONA BEACH, Florida - Double suicide squeeze. That was the call from Randy and Chuck Stegall in the second inning of Saturday's series finale between the Embry-Riddle baseball team and Florida Tech. The Eagles (20-19, 8-13 SSC) were trailing 3-2 to the Panthers (28-16, 11-13 SSC) and the visitors had just made a pitching change when Kevin Vittoria, who had sealed the Eagles' win on Friday night with a tremendous throw across the diamond for the final out, perfectly placed a bunt up the first base line, allowing Nick Hoffman to score easily, and Daniel Trillo, who started the play at second, never stopped, rounded third and slid under the tag of the Panther catcher, turning a one-run Eagle deficit into a one-run Eagle lead. ERAU would score nine straight runs in the second and third innings, getting strong pitching from Kelsey Ward, J.C. Carrell and Garner Spoljaric to emerge with the 9-5 victory.

Ward (W, 2-4) gave up three first-inning runs and had to sit through two long ERAU offensive innings back-to-back, but the lefty persevered, finishing the day going five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits with six strikeouts, and getting the victory. Carrell, who entered the game in the sixth, worked three frames, surrendering only one run on three hits with four Ks. Spoljaric worked a clean ninth, closing things out for the Eagles as they moved above .500 on the season.

Josh Reynolds started the Eagle rally in the second inning with a single to right, moving to second when Garrett Bogart was hit by a pitch, and then to third on a Hoffman walk. Trillo came through with his first hit of the season with the bases loaded, sneaking a double down the third base line, scoring two and cutting ERAU's deficit to 3-2. The next play was Vittoria's squeeze, the first double squeeze for the  Eagles' NAIA days.

Ward, having sat for the better part of an hour, delivered a huge 1-2-3 frame in the top of the third, and the Eagles gave him five more runs of support in their half of the inning. Reynolds drew a bases-loaded walk before Bogart collected an infield single to make it 6-3. Hoffman then walked before Trillo had a sacrifice fly, pushing the Eagle lead to 8-3. Vittoria grabbed his third RBI of the day with a single to right, and accounted for the final ERAU run of the afternoon.

Ward allowed just one run in the fourth, despite the Panthers registering three hits, and worked a scoreless fifth as well, stranding two more Panthers.

Carrell faced the minimum in the sixth, but ran into a bit of trouble in the seventh as Florida Tech scored once, but the left-hander kept the damage to a minimu, striking out FT's Jack Nagy with two men on to keep the Eagles up 9-5.

Carrell got a massive line out double play to end the eighth inning after the visitors put runners on first and second with one out, and Spoljaric worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to close things out for the Blue and Gold.

Vittoria and Trillo both finished with three RBIs, while Reynolds went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. The Eagles walked six times in the game, struck out just three times, and collected nine RBIs.

Embry-Riddle hits the road for its final non-conference game of the regular season on Tuesday, April 19 against Georgia Southwestern State in Americus, Georgia.