DUE WEST, S.C. – The Erskine College baseball team (25-20, 15-11 CC) defeated Toccoa Falls College (22-18) by a score of 9-1 at Grier Field on Monday to extend the Fleet's winning streak to five games.

Erskine got a quality start from Ryan Cole, and balanced offensive production to earn the convincing victory.

THE ESSENTIALS 
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HOW IT HAPPENED
A short turnaround from the high of the Fleet's weekend sweep against Barton, redshirt freshman Ryan Cole earned his first collegiate start on Monday. After running into some early trouble in his first inning on the mound, Cole recorded a pair of huge strikeouts to strand a pair of baserunners in scoring position. Christian Rivera opened the scoring for the Fleet in the bottom half of the opening frame with his eighth home run of the season, a solo blast over the left field fence to give Erskine a 1-0 lead. After a shaky opening frame, Cole settled in and, at one point, had retired 12 consecutive hitters. Meanwhile, the Fleet scored three times in their half of the third, behind RBIs from Jude Littrell, Rivera, and David Hernandez. In the fourth, Ben Maskin and Carlos Gonzalez each delivered with RBI groundouts to extend Erskine's lead to 6-1. David Hernandez launched his fourth big fly of the season, a solo shot in the Fleet half of the fifth to make it 7-0. Toccoa Falls got on the board in the sixth with a leadoff home run, but Cole responded by striking out three of the next four hitters to close his impressive afternoon. Dustin Scogins came on in relief of Cole to start the seventh and set down the Screaming Eagles in order, and Maskin added a two-run single in the bottom half to cap the scoring output for the Fleet on Monday. Scogins used a double play ball to work around a leadoff single in the eighth, and Nick Pazos sealed the win, retiring the side in order in the ninth.

THE PLAYER
In his first collegiate start, redshirt freshman Ryan Cole tossed six impressive innings on the mound, allowing just one run on two hits and posting a career-best nine strikeouts. The California native earned his first win of his college career on Monday as well.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Erskine heads on the road for a rematch against Lincoln Memorial University (29-15, 18-12 SAC) on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Railsplitters hit a ninth-inning grand slam to stun the Fleet in Due West earlier this year.

MORE ABOUT THE ERSKINE COLLEGE FLYING FLEET

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