SAVANNAH, Georgia - The Embry-Riddle baseball team got back to its winning ways on Tuesday afternoon with an 11-1 victory over Savannah State, thanks to 12 hits and 11 walks. The Eagles (12-12) put up crooked numbers in three separate innings while a quartet of Eagle pitchers held the Tigers (14-6) to just one run.
Every Eagle starter reached base and eight starters scored at least one run for the Blue and Gold, and the visitors got started early, plating three runs in the first to give ERAU starter
Gunnar Harrison (3-1) an early cushion.
Alex Britton drew the first of his three free passes to start the Eagle rally in the first, followed by a
Timo Aracena walk before
Josh Reynolds plated the first run of the day with a double to center.
Jeremy Kennedy-Davis followed with a single to right before
Kevin Vittoria got the final RBI of the frame with an infield single, making it 3-0 Embry-Riddle.
Harrison had little trouble against the SSU offense through the first three innings, and his teammates doubled the lead to 6-0 in the fourth as Aracena, Reynolds, and Kennedy-Davis all picked up bases-loaded RBIs, the first two via walks, and the latter on a HBP.
The Tigers got their lone run in the home fourth, but a key double play helped limit the damage, and in the next half-inning the visitors put the game out of reach.
Vittoria began the fifth with a walk, scoring on a
Lance Minson double down the line, and after the Eagles loaded the bases, a sac fly from Britton scored the eighth run of the afternoon for the Blue and Gold. Reynolds came through with his second double of the game, making it 9-1 before the Tigers were able to get out of the inning.
Harrison worked a scoreless bottom of the fifth and the Eagles tacked on single runs in the sixth and seventh for an 11-1 cushion.
Spencer Marinac tossed the sixth and seventh innings without allowing a run, while
Knute Rockey did the same in the eighth, and
Joe Balsam finished things off with a shutout ninth.
Reynolds finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while both Kennedy-Davis and
Zach Coldsnow had a pair of hits. Britton scored three runs for Embry-Riddle.
Embry-Riddle heads south to Melbourne for a three-game Sunshine State Conference series against Florida Tech, starting on Friday, March 24 at 6 p.m.
