Western Kentucky’s baseball team got seven innings of one-run relief from Kevin Elder, but an early deficit was too much to overcome as Florida Atlantic took the middle game of the weekend series, 5-3, on Saturday at Nick Denes Field.

WKU’s Colie Currie and Wyatt Featherston hit their fifth home runs of the seasons, both solo shots, in the loss.

The Owls scored four runs in the first three innings on seven hits to take a 4-0 lead. Elder came in and held the visitors to five baserunners the rest of the way, with a solo home run in the seventh as the only damage on the scoreboard.

With seven full innings on 94 pitches, Elder set career-highs in both. He struck out four and walked none, lowering his season earned run average from 4.09 to 3.71.

Featherston’s home run over the right-field fence came in the third inning, while Currie’s homered in the eighth. The third Hilltoppers’ run came in-between, when Bryson Smith scored Kevin Lambert from third base on a sacrifice fly.

The rubber match of the series takes place Sunday at noon. Senior recognition ceremonies will begin at approximately 11:25 a.m. for WKU’s Class of 2017.