DOYLESTOWN, Pa.– Heading into the final two weeks of the season, Eastern Head Coach
Jed Morris felt that his team would have to win five of six games to earn a spot in the MAC Freedom Tournament. With results from today, that math has proved to be correct. Eastern University Baseball earned a series win with an 11-7 win in the first game of today's doubleheader at Delaware Valley, but the Aggies jumped to an early lead and held on for a 7-3 win in the nightcap.
The Eagles will need to sweep a red-hot King's College team to earn a spot in the tournament.
The day started beautifully. The Eagles loaded the bases in the first inning and led 6-0 before
Ryan Kehr took the mound.
Angelo Kelly had two hits, including a two-RBI double in the first inning.
The Aggies took advantage of some defensive mistakes to close the gap to 6-5 with five runs on four hits in the third.
Andrew Boykin drove in two important insurance runs in the fourth inning and Boykin and
Freddy Yahn had sacrifice fly RBI's in the sixth to put the Eagles up 10-5. Kelly drove in his third run of the game with a two-out single in the seventh.
The Aggies scored twice in the seventh for the final total.
Ryan Kehr picks up the win. He is now alone in second for career wins in Eastern Baseball history. With his RBI in the first inning, Gorton became eastern's single-season RBI leader. He has 44 RBI's this year.
The Aggies, who had won exactly one game in each of their five MAC Freedom series coming into this weekend, again refused to get swept. The hosts jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the fourth inning.
The Eagles plated two in the fifth. They then two runners on the sixth but could not score. Eastern had the bases loaded an no one out in the seventh, but Del Val lefty Trevor Dalton retired Gorton, Boykin, and
Jordan Laboy to end the game.
"This does not change much," Head Coach
Jed Morris said when he heard that Wilkes and FDU had been swept in their series against Manhattanville and King's. "We felt like we were going to need to find a way to get to 11 wins. "
The Eagles will play at King's on Friday and then will have a day off for graduation before hosting the Monarchs for a doubleheader on Sunday.
