NEWBERRY - After nearly a week without a game because of weather, the Newberry Wolves' softball team split a Saturday doubleheader with the Mount Olive Trojans at the Smith Road Complex, winning the first game by a 2-1 count before dropping a 6-5 decision in the second game.

Newberry is now 10-6 on the season and travels to Erskine for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

GAME ONE: Newberry 2, Mount Olive 1

Newberry pitching stranded eight Mount Olive runners in scoring position throughout the game to make a pair of third inning runs stand up for a win.

• The top of the batting order was the most prolific for the Wolves and Christina Linton and Morgan Sweeney each had two hits and a run scored.
• Maude McCourry moved to 6-2 on the season, allowing one unearned run on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts in 6-plus innings. Devon Morrison came into the game for the final three outs to pick up her third save of the season.

The Wolves started the scoring in the third inning with an RBI fielder's choice by Jeri Loffler and a run-scoring single from Ann Dee Priest pushing across Linton and Sweeney. The rally started with a Linton double.

Newberry worked around three errors in an uncharacteristically shaky fielding game, leaving the bases full in the second and fifth. UMO scored an unearned run in the seventh after a leadoff double, but a strikeout and groundout induced by Morrison left the tying run in scoring position.

GAME TWO: Mount Olive 6, Newberry 5

A big first inning got the Wolves off to a hot start, but UMO scored four in the sixth to take the lead and hold on for a win.

• Priest and McCourry each had a pair of hits in the game.
• Morrison dropped to 1-3 overall after allowing four runs in a relief appearance.

The Wolves rolled in the first inning after a leadoff walk by Linton, a Sweeney single and Mallory Gerndt being hit by pitch to load the bases. Priest and McCourry drove in runs with singles, followed by an RBI single by Briana Clontz and a sacrifice fly by Hailey Drawe to make it an early 4-0 lead.

Mount Olive scored a pair of unearned runs in the third to cut the lead in half, but a Clontz sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the frame made it a 5-2 Newberry lead. 

Unfortunately for Newberry, the Trojans had their own four-run inning in the sixth to give the guests their first lead of the day. A runner in scoring position was thrown out on the bases in the seventh for the Wolves to cut off the threat of tying the contest.