ST. AUGUSTINE – In a pitcher's duel at Drysdale Field Friday night, it was Lorenzo Butler's single through the right side of the infield that gave Igor Baez just enough time to score from second base to score the winning run as Flagler College edged Eckerd College 2-1 in a non-conference game.

Flagler improved to 4-1 overall while Eckerd dropped to 2-3.

Offense was hard to come by as Flagler's Cooper Wallace (2-0) and Eckerd's Dillon McCullough (0-1) were matching each other pitch-for-pitch. Wallace retired the first eight-of-nine batters he faced. McCullough retired the first six-of-seven batters he faced, five of those were strikeouts.

The Saints tallied an early run. In the third inning, Ja'Kobi Dasher led off with a bloop double to shallow center and two batters later, he beat the throw to third base on Dylan Jones' sacrifice bunt. All three runners were safe. After a strikeout, Baez hit a grounder to second base and Dasher crossed home plate with the first run of the game. The Saints would leave the bases loaded.

Eckerd answered in the top of the fourth. Lead-off hitter Tom Buonopane opened the inning by drawing a walk. He took second when Sam Cochrane singled through the left side of the infield. Buonopane took third when Nick Conti flied out to right field. Buonopane scored when Jason Moore let a pitch from Wallace squeeze through him far enough that Buonopane could score the tying run.

Baez led off the sixth inning when he belted a pitch to the left-center field gap. When Butler followed with his rolling single through the hole into right field, Baez was waved home and just beat Cochrane's throw to the plate. Eckerd catcher Mitch Calandra could not control the throw, which was to the first base side of the plate, and when the ball bounded away, Butler scampered to second.

Eckerd threatened in the ninth. After Calandra and Garrett Hiott hit back-to-back one-out singles, Flagler's Luke Cooksey was called on to relieve Louis Pugliese. Cooksey walked the first batter he saw to load the bases, but got an infield fly and then he corralled a tapper back to the mound to end the game.

Wallace tossed six innings and allowed just four hits and one unearned run. He fanned four and walked two. Pugliese went 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowed three hits and fanned two before giving way to Cooksey. Cooksey picked up his first save of the year.

Four different Saints had one hit. Both Baez and Dasher had a double.

McCullough was the hard-luck loser for the Tritons. He scattered four hits and allowed both runs. He walked two and struck out nine batters.

Conti and Calandra each collected a pair of singles.

Both teams will meet in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Feb. 11) at Drysdale Field.