DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After falling in a heartbreaker on Friday night, the Embry-Riddle baseball team split a doubleheader Saturday with Florida Tech, but the Eagles (16-12, 5-7 SSC) dropped the series to the Panthers (14-18, 7-8 SSC). ERAU won the first game of the DH, 6-2, but dropped the second of the afternoon, 8-2.
 
Game 1
The two teams combined for eight runs in the game, but no one scored after the second inning in a quiet contest. Jacob Hoppe got the start, going a full inning before giving way to Max Meyer in the second inning. From there, Meyer was stellar, going 6.2 innings of work, allowing just two hits and one walk to four strikeouts in his longest appearance of the season. After Meyer, Trevor Nolan (0.1IP) and Joe Balsam rounded things out to secure the game one win.
 
The Eagles collected seven hits, all off FIT's starting pitcher, but Vassallo finished only 2.1 innings, yielding six runs to the Eagles. But from there, the Panthers reliever crew of Sean Means and Zack Rodgers went 5.2 innings combined with no hits allowed to five strikeouts, quieting the loud Eagle bats.
 
All seven hits came off different bats. In the first, Chase Bruno and Camden Traficante went back-to-back doubles to open up the scoring fairly quickly, going up 1-0. After Meyer took the hill with bases loaded – all runners charged to Hoppe – the Panthers regained the lead at 2-1. But with Meyer settling in for six more relief innings, the Eagles struck. 
 
First, Josh Reynolds came across home plate on a Dylan Brazil single that moved Timo Aracena to third. Subsequently, Chase Bruno loaded the bags before Alex Britton ripped a huge lining triple to deep right field to clear the bases. Not done, Dillon Lifrieri doubled to left field to score Britton easily, making it 6-2 in the blink of an eye.
 
Though the Eagles wouldn't collect another hit in the first game, they ran away with the opening game win by the same margin.
 
Game 2
It was a different story in game two, however. Eagle ace Dillon Moran only lasted 1.1 innings before giving way to Keagan Perez (2.2IP), Tyler Donay (2.1IP) and Brock Chance (2.2IP) to close things out. In the loss, the Eagle staff struck out seven batters, but gave up eight combined runs on 13 hits to suffer the loss. 
 
At the plate, Lifrieri continued his tear with a 3-for-5 day and two RBI. Alex Imposimato added another two hits, and Britton, Brazil and Kuzmicki added a hit apiece in the losing effort. Lifrieri's two RBI, his second multi-hit, multi-RBI game this series, was ultimately not enough.
 
Trenton Anderson took the hill for the Panthers, going 6.2 innings of six-hit ball ,allowing just the two runs. Vermillon, Guthrie and Steckly combined to go 1.1 innings down the stretch, giving up just a combined two hits. Outside of the two-run seventh inning, the Eagles were held hitless for three innings and with just one hit per inning the rest of the way.
 
FIT opened up quickly 2-0 on a two-run homer in the top of the first, adding another run in the top of the second. Up 3-0 already, the Panthers made it 6-0 with three runs in the fourth, and added another run in the seventh, going up 7-0 before ERAU finally dented the scoreboard. Lifrieri's single in the seventh plated both Camden Traficante and Alex Britton, but Tech shut the door and added on more run off Chance in the ninth to take the final, 8-2.
 
The Eagles are back in action on Tuesday with a trip to Flagler on the docket at 6 p.m.