Mocsâ?? Ninth-Inning Rally Comes Up Short

Embry-Riddle was able to halt a ninth-inning Moccasin rally and made a three-run eighth inning stand up for a 7-6 victory over the Moccasins Tuesday night at Henley Field.

The Eagles, ranked sixth in NAIA, trailed 5-4 going to the eighth, but loaded the bases with no outs against Jack Sterritt on a pair of walks and a single.  Mike Czenszak replaced Sterritt and Frankie Arias hit his first pitch to right field for a two-run single and Jeff Lemon followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in the third run.

In the Moccasins’ ninth, Colin Kish and Kyle Gibbs singled to start the inning.  J.J. Downum advanced them to second and third with a sacrifice bunt.  Jimmy Correnti’s infield out scored Kish to make it 7-6, but Daniel Eaton got Keith Curcio to fly out to left field to end the game.

The Eagles improved to 33-11 on the season, while FSC dropped to 20-15.

After Embry-Riddle scored twice in the first against Moccasin starter Anthony Dovale, Mike Snyder got one run back with his team-best eighth home run of the season over the left field wall.  A four-run second ining put the Moccasins on top.  Downum singled home a run, Cory Jensen's sacrifice fly to deep center field brought two runs home and Curcio's RBI-single capped the inning.  Embry-Riddle took advantage of four Moccasin errors in the third to score a pair of unearned runs and that was all of the scoring until the Eagles' eighth inning. 

Austin Barnett took over for Dovale to start the fourth and worked four scoreless innings.  Sterritt, the third of five Moccasin pitchers, took the loss.

The Moccasins take on top-ranked Tampa in a three-game Sunshine State Conference series at Tampa this weekend.  Friday’s single game starts at 6 p.m., with Saturday’s doubleheader set for 1 p.m.