CENTRAL, S.C. – Southern Wesleyan baseball pulled to within one but couldn't catch No. 11 Erskine on Monday night in the finale of the three-game conference series at Connor Field, falling 6-5 to the Flying Fleet.

Erskine took a 4-0 lead after three innings as the Warriors struggled through the first four innings at the plate. Wes Schuler allowed just three singles in the first four innings for Erskine before SWU collected four hits of the righty in the fifth inning.

Luke Hostetler led off the fifth with a single up the middle. Daniel Coleman was hit with a pitch and after a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, John Garrett knocked in Hostetler with a sacrifice fly to center. Mike Hyman reached on an infield single before Justin Brew and Josh Shimp each knocked in a run with singles. That chased Schuler who gave way to Cody Dysart who induced a double play ball to end the threat.

Erskine responded with a run in the sixth as Tanner Lollis hit his first home run of the season to left field. SWU got that run back in the bottom half of the inning as Julio Lara scored on a double play. The Flying Fleet added another run in the eighth as Brandon Overstreet produced a sac fly after two reached on errors.

The Warriors had chances in both the eighth and ninth innings. Dan Williams doubled in the eighth to start the rally. Lara was plunked to put two on and after Terry Hall struck out Johnny Ponder, Joe Johnson came in and walked Hostetler to load the bases. Johnson bounced back to strike out the next two to leave the bases loaded.

In the ninth Brew flipped a ball down the left field line to start a one-out rally. Shimp singled and Williams was plunked to load the bases again. Matt Costa was hit to push across a run and pull the Warriors to within one at 6-5 but Kyle Foster shut the door to earn the save by striking out the only two batters he faced.

Cody Dysart picked up the win in relief for the Flying Fleet to improve to 1-0 as Foster picked up his first save. Tyler Rio took the loss to fall to 0-5 on the year. Rio tossed six innings, allowing nine hits and five runs, four earned. He walked just one and struck out three. Kalin Smith struck out four in two innings and Jordan Finster struck out two in the ninth.

SWU outhit Erskine 12-11 as three players picked up a pair of hits. Justin Brew and Josh Shimp each had two hits in the middle of the lineup and Julio Lara added two as well.

The Warriors will travel to North Georgia for a game on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before turning around and hosting Anderson at 6 p.m. Wednesday.