Due West, SC – The 7th ranked Trojans of Mount Olive scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and held on for a 5-2 victory over 20th ranked Erskine College Friday afternoon in the opening game of a Conference Carolinas series.

In the bottom of the third inning, Bryan Fogle (Lexington, SC, Lexington High School) would be hit by a pitch with one out and then steal second base. John Bolding (Pickens, SC, Pickens HS) would then single to advance Fogle to third and then he would score on a sacrifice fly by Luke Danielewicz (Spartanburg, SC, Dorman High School) to give the Fleet a 1-0 lead. Mount Olive would tie the game up in the sixth inning when Jesse Lancaster led off with a single and then later scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Knox.

In the top of the eighth, the Jeremy Nowak would hit a one out single and then score on a single by Airlon Vinson to take a 2-1 lead. Pinch hitter Dylan Holton would hit a two run single and Ryan Faison would follow with a RBI single to put Mount Olive up 5-1. In the bottom half of the inning, Fogle would blast his 23rd home run of the season over the batters eye in center field to cut the lead to 5-2 but that would be as close as the Fleet would get.

Bolding led the Fleet at the plate going 3-4, while Matt Youngblood (Travelers Rest, SC) was 2-4. Fogle finished the game going 1-2 and scoring both the Erskine runs and Danielewicz had a double in the loss. Atlee Pearson (Duncan, SC, Byrnes HS) took the loss allowing 4 runs on five hits in two and two-thirds innings of work while striking out five.

The two teams will play a double header tomorrow starting at 12:00 pm. Erskine will need to sweep both games to win their first Conference Carolinas championship.

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