CENTRAL, S.C. – The bats were silenced for the second consecutive game as Southern Wesleyan was shutout for the second straight game, falling 4-0 to No. 17 Southern Poly in the opening game of a SSAC weekend series.

The Hornets (21-10, 8-5 SSAC) scored twice in the second inning and one each in the eighth and ninth innings.  The Warriors (10-21, 5-8 SSAC) had just five hits, two coming off the bat of Julio Lara.  Southern Poly had four 12 hits, 100 off of starter Matt Craig.

SWU had their best chance to score in the fourth.  Lara had a two-out single and was followed by a walk to Joe Henderson and Tyler Lollis.  The Warriors failed to get a run in with a pop out with the bases loaded ended the threat.  In the fifth the Warriors left two on after Tyler Bice singled and Mike Hyman was hit on the arm with a pitch, but again the team failed to convert with a strike out ending the inning.

Southern Poly starter Zach Smith pitched 7.1 innings of four hit, five strikeout baseball.  He improved to 2-2 with the win.  Brantley Burton picked up the save with 1.2 innings of one hit ball.  Matt Craig took the loss despite a solid outing.  He scattered 10 hits over eight innings, allowing three runs but fell to 3-4 on the year nonetheless.

These two teams will be back at it on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Game one is set for seven innings with game two scheduled for nine.