HARROGATE, Tenn. – The newly-minted South Atlantic Conference champions scored an impressive win in their regular season finale, dodging raindrops with a 21-5 victory at Lincoln Memorial to earn their 21st conference victory of the season.
The win clinched the series for the third-ranked Wolves (38-12, 21-3 SAC) and made Newberry 8-for-8 on SAC weekends this season. The Wolves had wrapped up their first-ever regular season conference title a day earlier, with Lincoln Memorial (32-15, 18-6 SAC) needing a series sweep to score a regular season championship for the first time.
Newberry is the first 20-game winner in the SAC since Catawba went 23-6 in 2015, while its .875 winning percentage ranks fourth in league history behind Catawba in 1992 (21-0), Wingate in 1995 (20-1), and Tusculum in 2012 (.889). The Wolves' 21 runs scored were its most against a league opponent since a 24-run outburst against the Railsplitters in 2013.
The game was never in doubt thanks to Newberry's relentless offense that exploded for six runs in the first inning, chasing Railsplitters' starter Eli Wright after four had crossed the plate with just one out. The Wolves took the 6-0 lead on just three hits by working three walks, taking advantage of an error, and strategically inducing a rundown to score a runner from third.
Newberry added a run in the second after a leadoff double by
Danton Hyman, who was moved to third on a
Zane Tarrance sacrifice bunt and scored on
Tyler Ackard's ground ball to second base. A pair of unearned runs scored in the third on
Dalton Lansdowne's two-out single through the left side. Three more crossed the plate in the fifth courtesy of two hits, a sacrifice fly, and a pair of errors, with five more coming around to score in the sixth and four in the ninth.
Ian Clements led the Wolves offensively with three hits, including a double, to go with two runs scored and two RBI, with Hyman also recording three hits to go along with two runs scored and an RBI.
Tony Matos recorded his second consecutive two-hit game and scored four times, while
Luke Orr had a pair of hits and two RBI
Tomas Sorcia, Jr. improved to 7-0 on the season with six strong innings of work. He gave up four runs by scattering five hits and four walks while recording three strikeouts.
Quinton Driggers worked the final three frames for a nontraditional save, his sixth of the season to go with a 7-0 record.
Newberry will enter the 2019 Pilot/Flying J SAC Baseball Championship as the top-seeded team. The Wolves will learn their potential opponents for the 12:00 p.m. Friday start when tournament seeding is finalized on Monday.
