HARTSVILLE – Newberry scored an early run on an RBI single by Aidan Baur but was unable to make the lead hold up in a 4-1 loss at Coker on Friday afternoon.
 
Newberry (17-6, 3-1 SAC) got the leadoff man aboard when Danton Hyman was plunked with the game's fourth pitch. He swiped second base, then came around to score on Baur's single to left field.
 
But the combination of Coker's (10-8-1, 5-2 SAC) Jon Koski and Drake Knight kept the Wolves off the board for the final eight innings. The duo scattered six hits, issued just two walks, and stranded 12 Wolves on the basepaths.
 
The Cobras came back with a run on an RBI groundout to tie the score in the bottom of the first and strung together three hits in the fourth to push their lead to 3-1. Coker added an unearned run in the eighth to up their margin to three runs.
 
Newberry got two singles and a hit by pitch to load the bases with one out in the fifth. But starter Koski buckled down, getting a strikeout and a 4-3 groundout on consecutive pitches to strand the bases full. The Wolves again threatened in the seventh, stringing together two straight two-out singles, before a flyout to right field provided the escape for the Cobras.
 
Koski earned the win for Coker to improve his record to 4-0. Drake Knight worked the final two innings, allowing a baserunner on a fielding error in the ninth, for his third save of the season.
 
Newberry finished with six hits on the day by six different players, five by the top five in the batting order and one from nine-hole hitter Dalton Lansdowne. Coker designated hitter Gavin Matthews was the only player for either team to record multiple hits.
 
Charlie Fessler pitched well but was saddled with the loss, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and striking out two. He was lifted with one out in the bottom of the fifth in favor of Quinton Driggers, who went the rest of the way.
 
Driggers worked the final 3.2 innings, limiting the Cobras to one unearned run without surrendering a hit. He lowered his ERA to a miniscule 1.74, good for third in the South Atlantic Conference as of Friday afternoon, and upped his strikeout total to 35 in 31 innings pitched.
 
The Wolves and Cobras will meet twice tomorrow to conclude their season series. First pitch of the Saturday doubleheader is set for noon in Hartsville.