VALDOSTA, Georgia - The Embry-Riddle baseball team finished out its season opening weekend by dropping both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday to Valdosta State, 10-3 and 3-1 (7 inn.). The Eagles (1-2) saw a tight game get away from them in the day's opener before the Blazers (2-1) took advantage of three crucial Eagle errors in the finale to emerge with the series victory.

The Eagles stay on the road for a single game on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at Edward Waters in Jacksonville.

Game 1 • VSU 10, ERAU 3
The Blazers turned a 2-2 tie into a blowout win, outscoring ERAU 8-1 over the final five innings to even the weekend series. The big damage for the hosts was done in the seventh and eighth innings with VSU plating five runs off the Eagle bullpen.

It was the Eagles that struck first though when Robert Post singled in Camden Traficante in the first for a 1-0 lead, but the Blazers answered with a lone run against Eagle starter Dillon Moran, making his first appearance for the Eagles since the 2020 season following Tommy John surgery.

ERAU regained the lead in the third, but a solo homer from VSU in the fourth knotted things up at 2-2.

Valdosta State took the lead in the fifth, loading the bases before a walk and passed ball allowed two runs to touch home.

ERAU had a few opportunities to score in the sixth and the seventh, getting one run in the seventh when Timo Aracena walked with the bases loaded, but the Blazers were able to put the game away with two runs in their half of the seventh and three more in the eighth.

Casey Keller (0-1) took the loss in 1.1 innings of relief for the Eagles. Moran pitched 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a pair of strikeouts. Isaiah Eberheart made his collegiate debut in the eighth, facing the minimum.

Traficante went 3-for-4 at the plate, scoring twice.

Game 2 • VSU 3, ERAU 1 (7 inn.)
The story of the rubber match of the series was defensive miscues. Three of the four runs that scored were unearned, with the home team benefiting from three Eagle errors.

VSU's first run of the game came in the first after two Eagle errors on the same play. ERAU was able to quickly tie things up however in the second when Alex Britton drew a bases-loaded walk to score Post who began the frame reaching on an error.

Connor Dunnam, the ERAU starter, worked around a one-out walk in the second inning, and looked like he was going to get out of a jam in the third, but the third Eagle error of the day pushed across another Blazer run for a 2-1 VSU lead.

The Eagles put together a couple of hits in the fourth, but a ground out ended the threat, and again the visitors had a man aboard in the fifth, but the Blazer bullpen was able to escape without giving up the one-run lead.

The Blazers loaded the bases in the fifth and scratched across their third run of the day, but Joe Balsam, making his season debut, was able to send the game to the sixth without any further damage.

Embry-Riddle had two doubles in the sixth but had no runs to show for them, leading to the seventh where the Eagles were able to bring the tying run to the plate, but a generous strike zone by the Gulf South Conference umpires resulted in the final out of the contest.

Dunnam (0-1) took the loss, going 4.1 innings, allowing just one earned run with two strikeouts, while Balsam finished 1.2 innings with three strikeouts and no baserunners allowed.

ERAU out-hit the Blazers 7-4 in the game, two hits each coming from Aracena and Chase Bruno, but 10 Eagle runners were stranded on the basepaths.