GREENVILLE, S.C. --  Jake Jones had three hits and drove in three runs and Blake Chisolm cracked a three-run home run to lead Furman past East Tennessee State, 8-4, in the opening game of a three-game Southern Conference baseball series Friday evening at Latham Stadium.

The Paladins (21-24, 9-9 SoCon) and Buccaneers (17-28, 5-11 SoCon) will play game two of the series on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

With the score tied 1-1 in the fifth, Jones delivered a two-run single up the middle to score Carter Grote and Sims Griffith to give the Paladins a 3-1 lead.  The senior outfielder drove in another run an inning later with a slicing double down the left field line that plated Griffith, capping a four-run frame that gave Furman a 7-1 lead.

Chris Ohmstede accounted for the Paladins' final run when he led off the seventh inning with a towering home run to left field, marking his third clout in consecutive games, 41st route job of his career, and 169th RBI of his career, a new Furman standard.

The game was the first in Latham Stadium since Apr. 14 for the Paladins, who were coming off a stretch off 11 road games in the last 13 contests.

The Paladins fell behind 1-0 in the first as the Buccaneers used a hit batsmen, a fielding error, and a RBI single from Trey York to a grab the lead against Furman starting pitcher Matt Solter.

Buccaneer starting pitcher Griffin Kreig (2-6) cruised through the first four innings, allowing only a pair of singles, but ran into two-out trouble in the fifth after hitting Furman's Ryan Morse with a pitch.  Griffith followed with a single through the right side, and the Paladins took advantage of a fielding error by York, who failed to handle a sharp ground ball off Grote's bat, allowing Morse to race home from second base.  York was charged with a second error on the play after his throw home to get Morse bounced past ETSU catcher Hagen Owenby, allowing Griffith and Grote to advance an extra base.  Jones followed with his two-run single up the middle to put Furman ahead, 3-1.

The Paladins struck again an inning later, tallying five hits, including Chisolm's three-run shot off the scoreboard beyond the right field fence to make it 6-1.  Griffith kept the inning going with a two-out double and scored on Jones' RBI double.

The middle inning surge proved more than enough for Solter (3-4), who collected the victory after working seven innings and allowing three runs, two of which were earned, on four hits.  He walked three and struck out three.  The senior right-hander checked the Buccaneers on just one hit from the second inning until two outs in the seventh, when he yielded an infield single and a pair of walks that loaded the bases and led to a two-run Christian Bailey single.  Solter escaped further damage by getting Jeremy Taylor on a fly ball to end the inning.

Elliott Warford pitched the final two innings for Furman, which finished with 12 hits, led by Jones' 3-for-3, three-RBI performance.  Griffith had two hits and scored twice, as did Ohmstede.

ETSU finished with six hits.

Hunter Reid, Furman Sports Information