DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle baseball team completed the series sweep over Florida Southern on Sunday, claiming a 13-4 victory over the Mocs. The Eagles (27-17, 13-11 SSC) earned their first SSC series sweep of the year, and first-ever series sweep over FSC (14-28, 8-16 SSC) in the process.
For the 15th time this season, ERAU eclipsed the 10-run plateau in the 13-run effort, with 14 base hits to boot. The Eagles used four extra-base hits, including two doubles from
Camden Traficante, and a 3-for-5 effort from
Alex Britton, who missed hitting for the cycle by one home run. Traficante,
Chase Bruno (2-for-5),
Tyler Castelli (3-for-6) and
Timo Aracena (2-for-5) all had multi-hit, multi-RBI days, while Britton and
AJ Marinello each scored multiple times.
Tristan Harley pitched long enough and well enough to earn the victory on Sunday, going for 5.0 innings strong, allowing two runs on just three hits and two walks. He moves to 2-4 on the season.
Keagan Perez worked for 2.2 innings of relief, striking out three and giving up a pair of runs to hold things, while
Joe Balsam finished the Mocs off in 1.1 innings of one-hit work, striking out one batter.
For the third time in as many games, the Eagles used first-inning runs to take a very early advantage in the contest. Castelli reached on an errant throw home, that scored Britton, then
Dillon Lifrieri drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0. Subsequently after,
Matthew Coker reached on a fielder's choice that plated Traficante to put the Eagles up quickly 3-0.
After Britton led things off in the second inning with a double, Traficante followed suit two batters later, doubling home Traficante to make it 4-0. FSC, however got two runs back in the third inning to make it a two-run ball game. Doorey doubled to left center to bring the Mocs' first run in, then El'Rico Riley made it 4-2 on a grounder that plated another run.
Aracena quickly made it 6-2 early in the home half of the third, though with a single that brought two runs across, and with the bases juiced again, Britton drew a walk to make it 7-2. Not done yet, Bruno singled a ball in the infield that skipped away on a base hit to score two more runs, and Traficante's fielder's choice plated Britton to make it an insurmountable 10-2 after just three innings.
Castelli's single in the fifth added another insurance run, scoring Traficante, before the Mocs got a run back in each of the next two innings. A homer from Nick Collins in the seventh, and an E. Riley homer in the eighth gave FSC some life, but it was not enough to overcome the Eagles' bats. Aracena added a sacrifice fly in the seventh, then a
Zach Coldsnow groundout RBI made it the final 13-4 in the eighth.
After the win, a series sweep, the Eagles will return to the road on a four-game win streak. ERAU will head to St. Petersburg on Friday to take on SSC foe Eckerd in a three-game set, before returning to Sliwa Stadium in two weeks to close out the regular season against Barry on May 10-11.