GASTONIA, N.C. – The No. 7 seed Erskine College baseball team (27-26, 20-13 CC) was defeated by the No. 6 seed University of Mount Olive (29-20, 20-12 CC) by a score of 8-4 in an elimination game of the 2026 Conference Carolinas Baseball Championships at CaroMont Health Park on Friday.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Facing elimination in an early afternoon start, the Fleet were slow out of the gates and surrendered six first-inning runs to Mount Olive. The Trojans added a run in each of the next two innings as well, but RBI singles from
Mason McManus and
Danny Villafane got Erskine on the board in the third to make it an 8-2 game.
Ethan Wilford came on out of the Erskine bullpen and delivered one of his best performances of the season to hold UMO where they were, but the Fleet could not take advantage of its scoring opportunities in the middle innings. McManus and
Ricky Dober each totaled RBIs in the top of the seventh for Erskine to get them within four, and
Julien Hachem,
Nick Fraginals, and
Coleman Garner chipped in to contain the Trojans lineup in latter innings, but the Fleet were unable to get closer as the big first inning from Mount Olive proved to be too much for the Fleet to be able to overcome.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Following Friday's action, Erskine's 2026 season came to an end. But, the Fleet saw considerable improvements in the first year under co-head coaches
Scotty Bateman and
Jimmy Prince, including upping its win total in conference play by 12, as Erskine will now put its focus on the offseason and preparations for 2027.
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