A historic baseball season that saw Embry-Riddle win its first California Pacific Conference Tournament Championship came to a close in Lewiston as the Eagles fell 4-3 to the Thunderbirds of British Columbia on Tuesday evening in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. ERAU beat the Stars of Oklahoma City earlier in the day 10-0 in their first elimination game of the day.  

Game 1

After two scoreless innings, ERAU broke open the score in the bottom of the 3^rd inning.  The first eight batters of the inning reached safely for the Eagles and the first seven all scored.  Javier Izaguirre Jr. (Riverside, Calif.) led off the inning with a single.  Drew Barragan (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.) followed with a double to bring home Izaguirre Jr. and give Embry-Riddle the 1-0 lead.  After a mistake by the Stars defense put runners on first and second, Luke Jepsen (Temecula, Calif.) hit a single that brought home Barragan.  Kevin Fedoruk (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) followed with a double that made the score 3-0.  The next Eagle batter, Blake Moore (San Ramon, Calif.) hit a single that brought home both runners on base and ERAU led 5-0.  Gavin Botts (Lake Forest, Calif.) and Miles Murphy (Goodyear, Ariz.) both were hit by pitches to load up the bases for the top of the Embry-Riddle lineup.  A sacrifice fly by Travis Strickler (Glendale, Ariz.) and a throwing error brought in the last two runs of the inning for ERAU and the Eagles led 7-0 after three innings. 

Embry-Riddle scored three more runs in the bottom of the 7^th inning.  Moore started the inning with a walk and moved to 3^rd on a double by Botts.  A single by Strickler brought home both base runners.  The last ERAU run came when Strickler scored on a double by Izaguirre Jr. as the Eagles went on to win 10-0. 

Jesse Kaphing (Phoenix, Ariz.) pitched the complete game shutout striking out seven Oklahoma City batters and giving up just eight hits to the Stars. 

Game 2

In the second game of the day the Eagles faced the Thunderbirds of British Columbia once again.  Just like Monday's game, UBC scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning as they quickly took a 2-0 advantage. 

Embry-Riddle however tied up the game in the top of the 4^th inning.  Barragan started the inning with a double and then Roberto Garza-Nunez (Salinas, Calif.) reached on a fielder's choice to put runners on first and second. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch.  A sacrifice fly by Jepsen brought home Barragan to make the score 2-1.  A single by Fedoruk plated Garza-Nunez and after the top of the 4^th inning the score was tied 2-2. 

The Thunderbirds were able to answer right away with a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning to take a 3-2 lead. 

UBC added another run in the bottom of the 5^th on another sac fly to make the score 4-2. 

An RBI single by Izaguirre Jr. in the top of the 7^th brought Embry-Riddle back within a run with the score 4-3 but the Eagles were unable to complete the comeback dropping the game 4-3. 

Spencer Lanz (Atwater, Calif.) started the game for ERAU and Jonah Montes (Upland, Calif.) pitched well in relief going 3.2 innings giving up just two hits.