HARTSVILLE - The fifth-seed Newberry Wolves jumped out to an early lead, but the red hot third-seed Catawba Indians scored 11 straight runs to hand Newberry an 11-2 loss in five innings in the winner's bracket semifinals of the South Atlantic Conference Softball Tournament at Byerly Park on Saturday.

Newberry falls to 31-21 overall and will play second-seeded Anderson in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The winner advances to Championship Sunday against Catawba.

The game starting in a steady drizzle, which seemed to affect the pitchers on both sides. The first five pitches from Catawba's SAC Pitcher of the Year Carley Tysinger resulted in a four-pitch walk to Ashlen Ayres (Kennewick, Wash.) and a hit batsman drawn by Gabby Bedard (Winder, Ga.). Those runners would come around to score on RBI singles by Ann Dee Priest (Douglasville, Ga.) and Hailey Drawe (Oceanside, Calif.) to stake Newberry to an early 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the scarlet and gray, Catawba was not fazed and roared back to score five runs in the first on a three-run homer by Taylor Adams and a two-run single by Holli Chandler.

Catawba extended the lead to 9-2 in the second inning, which overlapped a two-hour rain delay. Gina Gerone hit an RBI single prior to the delay and on the first pitch back from the break, Emily Hunneycutt blasted a two-run homer to right field. Catawba's Caroline Turner and Natalie Naturile each hit RBI singles in the third to extend the lead to the nine-runa advantage.

Newberry was finally able to regain momentum in the top of the fifth, loading the bases with one out, but a strikeout and an infield popup ended the game prematurely.

Bedard, Mallory Gerndt (Burke, Va.), Priest and Drawe collected Newberry's only hits in the game. Brittany Middleton (Lizella, Ga.) pitched one inning in a start and was tagged with the loss.