KODAK, Tenn. – Newberry built a big lead in the early innings and held off a hard-charging Tusculum team to score a 10-6 win at the 2019 Pilot/Flying J South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship, staying in the winner's bracket and eliminating the Pioneers from the tournament.
Newberry (40-12) will advance to meet the winner of tonight's contest between second-seeded Lincoln Memorial and No. 3 seed Catawba tomorrow at noon. A win would advance the Wolves into the championship round, while a loss would necessitate an elimination game against LMU, Catawba, or Wingate at 7:30 p.m.
The win gives Newberry its first-ever 40-win season and is the 267th victory in the nine-year coaching career of
Russell Triplett, moving him into eighth in SAC history for career wins.
Newberry struck for single runs in the first and second innings on a hard-hit two-strike, two-out double from
Colin Allman and a squeeze bunt by
Peyton Spangler before exploding for six runs on five hits and an error in the third. Newberry sent 11 men to the plate in the frame, eight of whom reached consecutively.
Tony Matos, Spangler,
Dalton Lansdowne,
Danton Hyman, and
Zane Tarrance all provided RBI's in the inning.
Newberry extended its lead to nine runs by scoring in the fifth and seventh frames before Tusculum roared back for five runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Tomas Sorcia, Jr. started the inning but began to labor, walking the first four batters before being lifted with a 2-1 count.
Tyler Fuhr entered the game and gave up back-to-back two-out doubles but induced a flyout to center to end the inning. The Pioneers threatened to turn the budding blowout into a close affair despite doing all their scoring in the inning on just two hits. Fuhr settled in in the eighth, however; the only baserunner he allowed over the final two innings reached on an error as he recorded his second save of the season.
Sorcia earned the win for his six-plus innings of work. He allowed five runs, four earned, on three hits and struck out seven batters with six walks. Four of his seven strikeouts came in the fifth and sixth innings, ending each frame with consecutive K's to keep the Tusculum offense at bay.
Colin Allman paced the Newberry offense with a 3-for-4 day. He scored a run, batted in two, had two doubles, and recorded a walk.
Ian Clements joined Allman with three hits, going 3-for-5 with a run scored. Hyman and Matos also recorded multi-hit days for Newberry.
Only three Pioneers finished the day with at least one hit as the Wolves' pitching staff held Tusculum to five hits overall.
Newberry returns to action at Smokies Stadium with tomorrow's noon winners' bracket game.
