SAINT LEO, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle baseball team earned the right to continue its march into the postseason on Friday, with a stout 11-5 victory over West Florida in the NCAA II Baseball Championships South Region. The Eagles (33-19) will play the winner of UWF and Delta State tomorrow at 6 p.m.
 
The Eagles' bats awoke at just the right times on Friday night, piecing together 16 hits on the night to handily take their second game in the South Region in as many days. In all, six Eagles tallied mult-hit efforts, led by Camden Traficante and AJ Marinello with three apiece, both adding an RBI and two runs scored. Tyler Castelli (2RBI, 1R) was one of four members of the Blue & Gold to swing for two hits, his first one being a crucial homer in the top of the second. Alex Britton (1RBI, 1R), Timo Aracena (2RBI, 1R) and Jeremy Kennedy-Davis (1R) also added two hits apiece in the winning effort. Chase Bruno collected a pair of RBI and a run, while Matthew Coker also crossed the plate and brought in a run.
 
On the mound, ERAU got an excellent start in an important game out of Keagan Perez, working hard for 5.0IP, yielding just two runs on six hits and two walks against five strikeouts. After falling behind early in the first frame, Perez settled in and kept the Argonauts quiet for the next four frames. 
 
Max Meyer and Jacob Hoppe kept things rolling in relief, each tossing two innings; Meyer struck out three of the minimum six batters he faced, while Hoppe punched one out before yielding three earned on a tough play in the outfield that went for a bases-clearing triple, just one out away from getting out of the jam.
 
Though West Florida jumped out to their early 2-0 lead in the first, the Eagles battled and kept in it from the get-go. Castelli sent a deep shot that just missed the scoreboard to give the Eagles a bit of momentum in the second, giving some breathing room to Perez. 
 
In the bottom of the second, the ERAU corner outfielders showed out with spectacular defense. First, Marinello played a short hop in right field perfectly to snipe the runner going to second base for the force out. After Perez struck the next batter out, Dillon Lifrieri made a long run down the left field line in foul territory to make the third out in thrilling fashion.
 
In the fourth inning, ERAU added two more runs to take its first lead of the night, eventually never looking back. Traficante sent a screamer to left center for a lead off single, then with one out, Marinello singled up the middle, eventually making it to second base on an bad UWF fielding error, putting two in scoring position. Dillon Lifrieri then reached on a bang-bang play at first that ultimately was an error by the Argonaut first baseman, scoring Traficante from third. With runners at the corners, Matthew Coker singled down the right field line to push Lifrieri to third, scoring Marinello in the process to go up 3-2.
 
The Eagles added two more scores in the top of the fifth, thanks to two more singles from Traficante and Castelli. Kennedy-Davis led things off with a double to left center, advancing to third in the next at bat. With one out, Bruno was hit by a pitch, then Traficante and Castelli went back-to-back singles to put the Eagles up 5-2.
 
The seventh inning was dynamite for the Blue & Gold, which batted around the order. Traficante drew two walks in the frame, sandwiching a six-run inning for the Eagles. He, Dylan Brazil, Coker, Aracena and Britton all scored on a slew of singles that eventually put ERAU up 11-2 when the dust settled. 
 
By this Time, Meyer and the bullpen were hard at work to preserve the eventual win. Meyer struck two out in the sixth, and added a third in the seventh as he retired the side facing the minimum. Hoppe then worked the eighth and ninth, striking out the first batter he saw, before getting the next two to ground out, moving things to the ninth.
 
West Florida was able to nab a bases-clearing triple on a deep drive to right that bounced off the wall, but that was all as Hoppe and company shut the rest of the comeback down to take the Friday showdown, 11-5.
 
Up next, Embry-Riddle will play at 6 p.m. on Saturday, taking on the winner of the West Florida-Delta State matchup that starts at 2 p.m. A chance at the Super Regionals is on the line.