NEWBERRY - The Newberry College softball team picked up wins in its first two games of the season on a chilly day at the Smith Road Complex on Saturday.

The Wolves took down Claflin 3-2 in eight innings in the opening game, then earned a 5-2 win over Pfeiffer in the last game of the day. Newberry plays the two teams again Sunday, facing off against Pfeiffer at 11 a.m., then closing the Newberry Classic against Claflin at 3 p.m.

GAME ONE: Newberry 3, Claflin 2 (8 innings)

• Senior all-conference utility player Maude McCourry allowed one earned run in eight innings of work, as the Wolves avoided scoring threats from a pesky Lady Panther side in the extra inning win.
• Newberry stranded a Claflin runner on third base in three of the regulation innings, but struggled to make the most of baserunners despite McCourry's solid pitching. She allowed only three hits, walked four and struck out three.
• Natalie Willis and Allison Van Atta each had two hits in the contest. Willis brought home one run, while Van Atta's two-run single in the eighth was the winning hit.
• Hailey Drawe had a double and scored a run.
• Newberry stranded 11 runners on base.

Claflin scored first in the fourth inning, when a leadoff walk came around to score. The Wolves tied the game up in the fifth when freshman Natalie Willis drove in the first run of her college career.

In the eighth inning, Claflin scored one run before Newberry took advantage of a pair of walks in the bottom half of the inning. Allison Van Atta hit a single to right field that brought home the tying and walkoff runs.

GAME TWO: Newberry 5, Pfeiffer 2

• Allison Van Atta blasted her first career homerun in the second inning.
• Christina Linton went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
• Natalie Willis went 1-for-4 with a two-run double.
• Hannah Blakley (1-0) earned the win in the circle, allowing two runs on seven hits in 5.0 innings. She walked one and struck out one. Devon Morrison (1) picked up the save with 2.0 innings of scoreless relief with two hits and a strikeout.

Pfeiffer took an early lead in the top of the first on a heads-up baserunning play, when Emma Tuttle scored from second on a fielder's choice up the middle. Van Atta tied the game at 1-all in the bottom of the second, blasting a line-drive homer to left field.

Nicolette Myers hit a one-out single in the third, followed by a Linton double to right. Willis brought them both home with a hard hit double to the left-center gap, making it 3-1.

Pfeiffer cut the lead to one run with a Kaleigh Troutman RBI single in the top of the fifth, but Newberry added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the frame. Mallory Gerndt drove home a run with a hard-hit single to right and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jeri Loffler brought home the final run of the day.