NEWBERRY – Newberry came up on top in a see-saw affair with Southern Wesleyan at the Smith Road Complex on Wednesday night by a score of 10-7, upping their winning streak to 10 games and their home record to an eye-popping 12-0 in 2019.
The Wolves were 3-4 to start the day on February 13, when they outlasted Lander in a 12-inning thriller. Their record now stands at 13-4, one shy of matching the Wolves' 11 straight wins during the 2017 season.
The 12 straight victories at the Smith Road Complex are the most consecutive home wins since at least 1990, spanning the advent of computer records and game-by-game reporting to the NCAA.
Newberry plated at least one run in five of the first six innings while Southern Wesleyan's (7-7) scoring came in chunks. The teams swapped the lead three times before a three-run fourth inning, highlighted by a
Chase Barbary RBI double and two bases-loaded walks, gave Newberry the lead for good.
Consecutive run-scoring hits by Barbary and
Dalton Lansdowne extended the lead to 8-5 in the bottom of the fifth before the Warriors plated a pair in the top of the sixth to draw back within a run. But two singles, a hit batsman, and a wild pitch put the Wolves' cushion back at three runs while the bullpen held the SWU offense at bay.
Matthew Campbell labored at times but earned his first win of the season. He gave up five runs, four of them earned, on six hits through five innings.
Tyler Fuhr worked two innings before
Aaron Copeland allowed one baserunner to pick up a two-inning save, the first of his career.
Kenny Bergmann and
Dalton Lansdowne led the Wolves with three hits apiece, helping Newberry to a 14-9 lead in the hits column. The pair combined to score three runs and tally three RBI's.
Danton Hyman upped his batting average to a team-best .424, now ranked fourth in the SAC among players with 40 or more at-bats, with a 2-for-3 day. A pair of walks increased his on-base percentage to .506.
Tyler Ackard was officially 0-for-2 but scored two runs due to being plunked on three separate occasions.
Tony Matos, a sixth-inning pinch hitter for left fielder
Nick Butler, went 2-for-2 with an RBI single chopped through the left side. Barbary also had multiple hits with a 2-for-2 day, a run scored, and two RBI.
Southern Wesleyan's Tanner Glass, the starting pitcher and designated hitter, suffered the loss. He gave up six runs on nine hits through 3.1 innings. A quartet of Warriors pitched at least an inning each to finish out the contest, with Newberry tallying four runs on four hits against the SWU bullpen.
Newberry returns to action Friday with a neutral-site contest against Davis & Elkins in Florence. First pitch from Sparrow Stadium, home of Francis Marion University, is set for 2:00 p.m. The Wolves face Davis & Elkins again on Saturday morning before squaring off with the host Patriots in the afternoon.
