GREENWOOD - The Lander baseball team gave up four home runs Friday night as the Columbus State Cougars claimed Game 1 of the Peach Belt Conference series, 11-6, at Dolny Stadium.

The series will continued Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled for 1 p.m. CSU improves to 16-9 overall and 5-8 in the PBC, while Lander moves to 12-15, 5-11.

The Cougars' Jake Ezell (3-1) earned the win on the mound after striking out seven, walking two and allowing four earned runs on eight hits in 7.1 innings.

The Bearcats' Brandon White (2-2) was tagged with the loss, striking out seven, walking three and allowing seven earned runs on six hits in 4.2 innings.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Jackson Oliver's solo homer over the centerfield fence.

Lander retaliated in the second and tied the game at 1-1 on Colby Lusignan's RBI single that plated Chris Hyatt.

The Cougars added two runs in the third on Chris Daniels two-RBI double, then made it 7-1 in the fifth on Daniel's three-run homer over the right field wall and Matt Nettles' solo shot, also to right field.

Blaine Miller's two-run homer to left field in the seventh stretched the Cougar lead to 9-1.

Lander trimmed the lead to 9-3 in the seventh on Lusignan's two-run shot over the centerfield wall that drove in Taylor Kellner. It was Lusignan's third home run of the season.

Nettles then added a two-run double for the Cougars in the eighth to go up 11-3.

With bases loaded in the eighth, Kellner's RBI single plated Thomas Berry to cut the margin to 11-4, then, in the ninth, Colby Painter drove in pinch hitter Reed Gray and Alex Conaway scored on a fielding error to trim it to 11-6.

For Lander, Conaway, Painter, Kellner and Lusignan had two hits each.

Nettles went 3-for-5 to lead the Cougars.