DUE WEST, S.C. – Brandon Wooten fueled a key four-run third inning with his fifth home run of the season that helped Erskine post a 9-3 win over 14th-ranked UNCP in the series opener on Friday afternoon at Grier Field.

The setback snapped a two-game winning streak for the Braves (29-11) who dropped the opening game of a three-game series for the first time in 2013. The triumph marked the third win in the last four outings for the Flying Fleet (24-19).

The Braves got base hits from eight different players, including Brett Huffman who walked and singled in a run on a 1-for-2 hitting line. Jordan Edgerton turned in a 2-for-4 outing as well. Drew Willingham tallied a 3-for-4 performance for the Flying Fleet, who also got multi-hit showings from Connor Gibson (2-for-5, 2 R) and Cody Spence (2-for-5, 2 RBI).

Connor Pratt (2-3) picked up the loss for the Black & Gold after allowing seven earned runs on 10 hits and one walk in six innings from the mound. Heath Gray (5-6) picked up his first win in more than a month (five appearances without a win) with 7-2/3 innings of impressive work in which he scattered seven hits and yielded a trio of runs (two earned). He also struck out five. Kit Carter grabbed his fifth save of the campaign with 1-1/3 innings of hitless relief.

Erskine took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Logan Galliher's sacrifice fly, but grabbed all the momentum in the game-changing third inning. Spence would pad the lead for the hosts out to 3-0 on a two-out single that plated a pair of runs, before Wooten cleared the bases on a two-run blast with the next at-bat.

Huffman finally put the Braves on the board with a two-out RBI single in the fourth, but Erskine scored a pair of insurance runs in the sixth to all but put the game away. The Braves pulled to within four runs, 7-3, with two scores in the eighth, but the Fleet answered with two scores of their own in the bottom of the frame.

The squads will close out the three-game series with a noon doubleheader on Saturday at Grier Field.