DUE WEST, S.C. –The Jaguar baseball team dropped an 8-2 non-conference game at Erskine on Tuesday afternoon in Due West, S.C.

GRU Augusta (1-3) trailed 2-0 after the first inning, when the Flying Fleet (5-0) plated two on right-handed starter Tyler Brown. Rodney O'Neil opened the Newberry offense with a double and Brandon Overstreet singled to move runners to the corners. An infield error plated O'Neil from third and a groundball double play brought another across for the 2-0 lead.

Drew Taylor stayed hot at the plate for GRU and belted his first homerun as a Jaguar to leadoff the second inning. Erskine starter Kyle Foster settled down after the deep shot and ended the inning with just the one run allowed. Foster (2-0) tossed 6.0 innings and held the Jags to two runs on seven hits, while striking out three.

The Jags tied the game in the third on a sacrifice fly ball from Nick Rau to score Cole Thompson for a 2-2 score, but the Erskine bats answered with three more runs when they belted two homers in the third inning off Brown. The Fleet added one more in sixth and two in the eighth to take an 8-2 final.

Brown (1-1) went 3.0 innings and gave up six hits for five earned runs, while striking out two. GRU used five arms in the bullpen, with Will Robertson giving up one run in 2.0 innings of work and Tristan Jones allowing one in the eighth.

Rau was 2-3 with an RBI for GRU, Thompson was 2-4 with a scored run, and Taylor was 1-4 with the homerun. The Jags knocked 11 hits to Erskine's 14 and left eight runners on base in the loss.

The Jags host Paine College for a non-conference single this Saturday, Feb. 14 at Lake Olmstead Stadium.

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