DUE WEST - The Lander baseball team suffered only its second loss of the season Tuesday afternoon when the Bearcats fell to No. 25 Erskine College, 10-6 at Grier Field.

Lander moves to 9-2 overall, while Erskine improves to 9-3.

Trailing 3-2, Erskine exploded for six runs in the third inning to take an 8-3 lead.

Lander cut the margin to 8-6 in the three-run fourth inning on RBI singles from Jordan Owens, Pete Hernandez and Ryan McNulty.  However, the Flying Fleet came right back with two runs in the fourth when Casey Winckowski scored on an error and John Bolding stroked and RBI single.

The Bearcats took an early 1-0 lead in the first on a Hernandez RBI single, but the Fleet bounced back in the bottom of the inning to tie the game 1-1 when Bryan Fogle scored on an error. Erskine stretched the margin to 2-1 in the second when Drew Willingham stole home.

Lander took a 3-2 lead in the third on Owen's solo home run and Alan Abreu's RBI single.

Erskine's Derek Smith (1-0) earned the win for the Fleet, striking out five, walking one and allowing one hit in 2.1 innings pitched.

Lander's Ross Davis (1-1) took the loss as he struck out four, and allowed 10 runs (three earned) on eight hits in 3.1 innings pitched.

For Lander, Owens went 2-for-5 with one home run, two runs scored and two RBI, while Abreu hit 2-for-4 with one double and one RBI and Hernandez went 3-for-5 with one run and two RBI.