CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Andrew Boykin hit a two-out three-run homer in the top of the seventh to break a 4-4 tie, and fellow senior Josh Freed went the distance on the mound as Eastern University Baseball won the nightcap of a MAC Freedom doubleheader at DeSales, 7-6. It was the first win at DeSales for the Eagles since joining the MAC Freedom in 2008.

The Eagles never trailed in the game, but they were also not able to find a big inning to pull away from the Bulldogs. The Eagles scored single tallies in four of the first six innings. DeSales, however, was able to tie the game on three separate occasions.

Craig Stanley beat out an infield hit to start the Eastern seventh. The junior centerfielder moved into scoring position on a ground ball to the right side by Angelo Kelly. Shane Albertson had been on base three times already in the game and had homered to left in the fifth inning. The sophomore shortstop just missed a second home run with a shot to deep right-center. Stanley tagged on the play, but the Eagles were going to need a hit to take the lead.

For the second time in the series, the Bulldogs officially decided that it was not going to be Timmy Gorton. The decision to walk Gorton, who leads the MAC Freedom with 37 RBI's and 44 hits was probably an easy baseball decision, but it set up a match up with the left-handed Boykin hitting against a right-handed pitcher that he had homered against on Thursday.

The senior first-baseman followed Albertson's lead and went with the pitch to drive it over the left-field fence for his fourth home run of the year.

"Boykin missed an opportunity when they intentionally walked Timmy on Thursday," Head Coach Jed Morris said, "he was not about to miss another."

With the heart of the Bulldog line-up coming up, the three-run lead was not as big at it might have seemed. When the first two hitters reached, against Freed, the rest of the inning turned into a high-leverage situation for the senior right-hander. After a sacrifice fly scored one run and the next runner scored on a wild pitch, Freed struck out a batter to get the second out of the inning.

When Connor Lafferty singled for the Bulldogs, it set up a match-up with Freed and DeSales Freshman first baseman Sergio Diaz. Diaz had what proved to be game-winning hits in each of the first two games of the series and had already homered twice in the series. Freed pitched way around Diaz. The walk, however, put the tying run in scoring position.

Freed struck out the final batter of the game, a pinch-hitter, on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. He finished with five strikeouts in the game. The Eagles have won all four of Freed's league starts.

Boykin drove in a run in the first after the Bulldogs pitched around Gorton, and the Eagles scored another run on double-play in the third. Stanley delivered a two-out RBI to drive in Jordan Laboy in the fourth and put the Eagles up 3-2.

Eastern escaped the bottom of the fourth with one of the most unusual innings. Freed did not retire a hitter, and all three outs were recorded with tags. After a lead-off walk, Diaz doubled off the fence in right-center. Kelly hit Albertson in short high field, and the shortstop threw a strike to Gorton at the plate to cut the runner down at the plate.

After a hit batsman, Gorton threw out the runner trying to steal. Freed walked the next batter, but picked him off at first base to end the inning.

"Our word for the weekend was endure," Morris said. "We lived up to that in the way we played good baseball throughout. I am proud of Freed and Kehr's efforts today, and I was really pleased with the way Craig [Stanley] bounced back after two tough games to have a huge game in the win. We have been playing close games in conference all season.

Ryan Kehr was on the wrong end of a pitcher's duel in the opener. Kehr surrendered a lead-off home run in the second inning, and did not allow another runner to reach third until the sixth inning.

Eastern tied the game when Boykin singled up the middle to drive in Gorton, who had doubled. Gorton had two of Eastern's three hits off DeSales' starter Andrew Schuler.

The Bulldogs broke through with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Kehr had struck out the first two hitters before Lafferty singles. Diaz doubled to left to drive him in and then scored on another double.  The Eagles brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh, but there would be no game-one rally.

The Eagles (10-14, 6-6) will play at Lebanon Valley midweek before starting their weekend series against Misericordia in Dallas.