DAVENPORT, Fla. – Coming off a loss to Minnesota State the night prior, the Embry-Riddle baseball team collected a big win over the Mavericks, 16-8. The Eagles (8-5) used a heavy offensive onslaught in the middle innings to secure the victory.
 
Camden Traficante extended his hit streak once again to 14 games overall, 13 to start the season. Traficante's four hits (4-for-5) all involved runs, as he scored five times while driving in four runs, including a three-run homer in the third. For the second outing in a row, Tyler Castelli racked up a multi-hit game, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Drew Clymer led all Eagles with a career-best five runs batted in on his two hits, a two-RBI single in the fourth and a three-RBI double in the seventh. Along with Traficante's blast, Zach Coldsnow notched his first homer of the year, a solo shot in the final inning.
 
On the hill, Dillon Moran picked up his first win on the year, tossing 5.0 innings, yielding just five hits, three runs and three walks to six strikeouts. The Mavericks did homer twice, but each time were just solo shots. Jon Shields, Joe Balsam and Keagan Perez all made appearances in relief, highlighted by Balsam's 2.1 innings, striking out half of the batters he faced to maintain the Blue & Gold win.
 
Castelli got things rolling with a two-out double in the first, scoring Traficante, who was hit by a pitch in his first at bat, but Minnesota State got two runs over the next two innings to go up 2-1 entering the third.
 
After Matthew Coker popped a one-out single to left, Chase Bruno followed with a single to center, then Traficante blistered a home run to right quickly making it 4-2 in favor of the Eagles. Moran got MSU to go 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the third, and then ERAU opened the floodgates to start the fourth.
 
Timo Aracena drew a hit-by-pitch top open the frame, then advanced to second on a wild pitch with one out. Jeremy Kennedy-Davis singled back to the pitcher, then Alex Britton worked a walk to load the bases. Coker followed suit with an RBI walk before a pitching change for the Mavericks. Bruno joined the walk party next, then Traficante drove in a run on a fielder's choice. Castelli then ripped a double to left, scoring Bruno, followed by Clymer's single to center plating two more. When the dust settled, the Eagles took a monstrous 10-2 lead into the bottom half of the fourth inning. 
 
Moran would give up a leadoff double in the next frame, but two huge strikeouts ended any threat MSU could hope for. MSU did add another run in the fifth on a homer, but the Eagles used two steals in the top of the sixth – one each from Bruno and Traficante – to plate two more runs, making it 12-3.
 
A tough sixth inning for Shields, who was making his third career appearance, allowed the Mavericks back in it as they plated five runs to make things interesting at 12-8. But Balsam came on with one out to go and got the last Maverick swinging to end the run.
 
Clymer's three-RBI double in the seventh gave ERAU some much needed breathing room, as he plated Castelli, Traficante and Coker, then Balsam shut the door in the bottom half of the frame with two big strikeouts. 
 
For good measure, Coldsnow drove a deep shot to center in the ninth, while Perez came on in the bottom half of the inning and added two more strikeouts to officially close the door at 16-8.
 
Up next, the Eagles take on Minnesota-Crookston in the comforts of Sliwa Stadium on Friday at 5 p.m.