Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Errors came back to haunt the Eckerd baseball team on Friday night in the opener of a weekend series with Embry-Riddle (Fla.) as the Eagles came away with an 11-6 win.
The Tritons committed five errors, leading to five unearned runs including three in the sixth inning when a fly ball was dropped with the bases loaded and two outs.
That miscue gave ERAU (11-23) an 8-4 lead, but Eckerd trimmed the deficit in half thanks to a two-out, two-run double by
Mitch Calandra in the bottom of the sixth.
However, the Eagles' Tony Naab closed the door on the Tritons for the rest of the game and ERAU tacked on three more runs in the eighth, again scoring as the result an EC error.
Embry-Riddle never trailed after a solo home run by Justin Franklin in the second inning gave the team its first run. Â The Eagles added four runs in the fourth in chasing Triton starter
Joey Favetta (1-1).
Eckerd answered with two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth to make it a 5-4 game, getting RBI singles from
Jamaal Chaney and Calandra and a run-scoring groundout from
Chase Achuff. Â Calandra also scored on a wild pitch in the fifth with his run pulling EC within one.
That was as close as the team would get, though, after Embry-Riddle took advantage of the error in the sixth to score three times.
Eckerd (13-20) used eight pitchers in the game and got two stellar defensive plays in the ninth from Achuff at shortstop.
Calandra extended his hitting streak to 10 games, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Â
Tom Buonopane also had three hits and
Nick Conti extended his streak of reaching base safely to 33 games with a single in the first inning.
The two teams conclude the weekend series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 PM.
