AIKEN, South Carolina - Embry-Riddle baseball head coach Randy Stegall earned his 500th victory as the Eagles skipper on Sunday in a dramatic 7-6 extra-inning victory over USC Aiken. Stegall's squad improved to 9-5 overall, taking the three-game series from the Pacers (9-4) over the weekend at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.
The Eagles nearly gave the game away in the ninth, entering the bottom of the frame with a 6-1 lead before the Pacers put together the biggest ninth inning comeback against ERAU since March 10, 2017, scoring five times to send the game to extra innings.
Camden Traficante played the hero for the Blue and Gold, collecting the game-winning RBI single in the top of the 10th. It was ERAU's first extra-inning win since Feb. 5 of last year.
Stegall, who owns a career record of 569-325-2 (he spent two seasons at Indiana Tech prior to ERAU), gets his 500th win at Embry-Riddle in his 15th season at the helm of the Blue and Gold program. Stegall is just the third coach in Embry-Riddle Athletics history to reach 500 wins with one program, joining Steve Ridder (men's basketball) and Greg Guilliams (baseball). Assistant Coach Chuck Stegall has been a part of all 500 of those victories, while Assistant Coach Dave Therneau has been with the Eagles for 369 wins.
Dillon Moran appeared to put a bow on the weekend's pitching performance for the Eagles, flashing fantastic stuff for the Blue and Gold over seven shutout innings, but a late Pacer rally in the ninth denied Moran a deserved win.
Both starters stranded a runner in the first inning before the Eagles did all their offensive work in the second. After a strikeout from Jacob Fletcher, Garrett Bogart got the rally started with a single down the right field line. The Eagles continued to go to right, getting back-to-back hits from AJ Marinello and Alex Britton to drop in, scoring a run on Britton's base knock. Following a pop up for the second out, ERAU got two straight two-RBI doubles from Noah Clymer and Jeremy Kennedy-Davis, taking a commanding 5-0 lead.
The story the rest of the way was Moran. The right-hander struck out a career-high nine batters, allowing just four hits over his seven innings of work. Moran stranded a runner in the third, and faced the minimum in the fourth and fifth.
The Pacers' biggest threat against Moran came in the sixth inning when they put together a one-out rally, getting two on before Moran got the second out via a weak pop up. After a walk to load the bases, Moran needed just three pitches to strikeout the USCA five-hole hitter, ending the inning and leaving the bases loaded.
Joe Balsam came in to start the bottom of the eighth inning in relief of Moran, finding himself in a bit of trouble when the Pacers put two runners on the corners with one out. A sacrifice fly broke up the shutout, but Balsam kept the damage at just the one run, sending the game to the final frame with the Eagles leading 5-1.
Camden Traficante immediately got the run back for the visitors, hitting his third long ball of the year, a leadoff homer to right to start the ninth, pushing the ERAU advantage back to five runs.
That run proved to be very important as the hosts rallied in a big way, loading the bases with no outs before a double brought in two runs to make it a 6-3 game. Casey Keller came in for Balsam, getting out of the ninth, but not before three runs scored to tie the game and send the game to extras.
Garrett Bogart drew a walk to start the 10th against the USCA closer, moving all the way to third when Dylan Brazil put down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away, putting two Eagles in scoring position with no outs. With the infield in, Britton hit a ball to short that was thrown home, cutting Bogart down at the plate for the first out. A strikeout put the Pacers just one out away from escaping with a knotted score, but Traficante took a 1-2 pitch to through the right side of the infield to score Brazil and retake the lead for the visitors.
Keller got two quick outs in the bottom of the 10th, but two singles kept the Pacer hopes alive with runners on the corners. After the runner at first stole second, putting the potential game-winning run in scoring position, Keller struck out the final USCA hitter of the weekend, preserving the one-run win.
Keller (1-1) got the win, pitching 2.0 innings, allowing one unearned run with a pair of Ks. Six of ERAU's nine starters collected multiple hits, including Traficante who finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Embry-Riddle returns to Daytona Beach to play host to Davenport in a midweek match on Wednesday, March 1. First pitch at Sliwa Stadium is set for 6 p.m.
