DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Eagle righty Dillon Moran went the distance on Friday in the series-opener versus Palm Beach Atlantic as he and the Embry-Riddle baseball team soared past the Sailfish, 7-2. ERAU moves to 23-15 (10-9 SSC), while PBA drops to 13-24 (9-13 SSC).
 
Moran went all 9.0 innings on Friday, yielding just five hits and two runs (only one earned) and no walks to eight strikeouts. It was the second time in Moran's ERAU career he went the distance, and the first for an Eagle hurler this season. In the last three outings, Moran is 3-0 and has tossed 23.1 innings, with 15 hits, 10 runs and four walks to 25 strikeouts.
 
At the plate for the Eagles, AJ Marinello paced the club with a 3-for-3 day, scoring two runs and driving home another. Tyler Castelli also collected a pair of hits and a run scored, while Dillon Lifrieri drove in two and scored once on his 1-for-4 day.
 
After a silent first inning between the two SSC foes, the Eagles roared out of the gates in the second frame. Castelli led things off with a single to right, followed by a Marinello shot up the middle to put two on. Alex Britton was plunked in the next at bat, loading the bases for Lifrieri. Lifrieri then reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Castelli in the process as the throw home was not in time. Timo Aracena subsequently reached on an error by the shortstop to score Marinello, then Jeremy Kennedy-Davis provided another run off a deep ball to center, plating Britton. Rounding out the scoring, Matthew Coker reached on another fielder's choice, this time bringing home Lifrieri to make it 4-0 in favor of the Blue & Gold.
 
ERAU would add one more in the next home half thanks to another well-placed ball from Lifrieri. The Eagle left fielder drove in Marinello to make it 5-0 with Moran dealing on the other side of the ball.
 
Two innings later, however, the Sailfish broke up the scoring drought with one run in the fifth. A leadoff double by Pedro Figueroa, just the second hit of the day for PBA to that point, led to a run after some 'Fishy small ball.
 
The Eagles grabbed the run back two innings later in the seventh, thanks to a leadoff double from Bruno. Two batters later, Castelli singled in the infield with a hot-shot to second base, pushing Bruno to third. From there, Marinello added an RBI sacrifice fly to make things 6-1 in favor of the home side. The Eagles scored once more in the bottom of the eighth after Kennedy-Davis drew a two-out walk. The Eagle backstop made it to third in the next at bat thanks to an errant throw on a pickoff attempt. Shortly after, a wild pitch brought JKD across home to make it 7-1.
 
The Sailfish were down to their final strike in the ninth, but a lengthy at-bat from Sean Williams resulted in an error to put runners at the corners, but a soft grounder to Traficante, who flipped to Bruno ended things quietly with Moran earning the complete game.
 
The Eagles and Sailfish will do battle on Saturday in a double header beginning at 1 p.m.