Due West, SC – The 24th ranked Flying Fleet braved the wind and cold to defeat Paine College 10-4 Wednesday afternoon at Grier Field in non conference action.

In the top of the first, Paine would take advantage of an Erskine error and take an early 1-0 lead. The lead would now last long as Greg Huff (McDonough, GA, Henry County High School) would lead off the bottom half of the inning with a single and then steal second base. Casey Winckowski (Oregon, OH, Owens CC) would then sacrifice Huff to third and Bryan Fogle (Lexington, SC, Lexington High School) would drive him in with a run scoring double to tie the game. Erskine would add two more runs on an RBI ground out by John Bolding (Pickens, SC, Pickens HS) and a run scoring single from Brian Laznik (Chardon, OH, Lakeland CC). In the third inning Chas Anthony (Pickens, SC, Pickens High School) would add to the Fleet lead with a solo home run to right center to make it a 4-1 game. The Lions would once again take advantage of an Erskine error in the top of the forth to score two runs and cut the Fleet lead to 4-3. That would be as close as Paine would get as the Fleet would pull away with six runs in the final five innings to take the victory.

Erskine was led at the plate by Anthony who finished the game 3-4 with a home run, three runs scored and one run batted in. Fogle finished the game 1-2 with a double, one RBI and walked three times, while Greg Huff was 2-5 with a double and run scored. Freshman Heath Gray (Byrnes, SC, Byrnes HS) scattered eight hits over 5.1 innings of work and struck out seven, while allowing only one earned run to pick up his first career victory.

With the win, Erskine improves to 4-1 on the season and will travel to Anderson this weekend to open up Conference Carolinas play.

Box Score