FORT PIERCE, Fla.– Every day in baseball is a different day. One day after silencing the Houghton Highlander bats, the Eastern defense and pitching staff gave up 20 runs in a 20-10 loss. The Highlanders (1-3) took a 10-2 lead after three innings and scored nine runs in the last two innings to hold off a late Eastern charge.

Houghton took advantage of a leadoff error rin the first inning to jump to a 3-0 lead before the Eagles came to the plate. Eastern bounced back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Angelo Kelly started the rally with a leadoff single and a stolen base. He scored on an Andrew Boykin single. Kelly reached base four times and scored a pair of runs, and Boykin was 2-for-3 on the afternoon. Boykin scored later in the inning on an error.

Things really went sideways for the Eagles in the second. After three batters walked, Eastern starter Ian Roth retired the next two hitters while allowing two runs to score. Another walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases again, and two-out double drove in a pair and spelled the end of the day for Roth. The Highlanders picked up two more runs on a triple to right off Matt Bunjo.

Freshmen pitchers Jay Crawford and Albie Urbina pitched through the middle three innings allowing only a single unearned run, but the Eagles trailed 11-2 at the seventh-inning stretch. It looked as though Eastern was going to make a run at the game with a four-run seventh, but Houghton bounced back with 5 runs in the eighth. Jordon Laboy delivered a two-RBI double in the seventh.

Timmy Gorton had a two-RBI double in the ninth, but the Eagles ran out of outs and fell 20-10. 

Eastern (2-2)  will play against the University of Northwestern from Minnesota tomorrow at noon.