KODAK, Tenn. – Needing two wins to secure the program's first tournament title at the Pilot/Flying J South Atlantic Conference Championship in 20 years, No. 8 Newberry fell just shy of 18th-ranked Catawba by a 3-2 score at Smokies Stadium.
The Wolves finish the season with a program-record 41 wins in 55 games and will learn if they have been selected to the 2019 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship field on Sunday, May 12. Catawba is 42-12 on the season and will also await a potential postseason berth.
Newberry jumped on top with two quick runs in the first inning.
Danton Hyman led off the game with a double, extending his hitting streak to 14 games and reaching safely for the 61st time in the last 62 games. He moved to third on a sacrifice and came home on
Tyler Ackard's single into the gap in right center.
The Wolves got another baserunner when
Colin Allman worked a four-pitch walk. Both then moved up 90 feet when an errant pickoff attempt hit Ackard in the helmet, allowing him to scamper home for an unearned run moments later on
Luke Orr's RBI groundout.
Newberry, however, advanced only four runners into scoring position until the ninth inning, when a hit, a walk, and a flyout put runners on the corners with two outs. Catawba was able to induce a flyout to end the game and secure the program's eighth conference tournament championship.
Catawba did all of its scoring in a decisive sixth inning. The leadoff man found his way aboard on a fielding error, with a single and a walk loading the bases with no outs. Three consecutive run-scoring plays, two singles sandwiched around a fielder's choice, gave Catawba the lead.
Josh Bookbinder, who along with
Quinton Driggers is tied for the single-season school record for wins in a season, suffered just his second loss of the season to fall to 9-2. He lasted 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on six hits, with one run unearned due to the sixth-inning error. Driggers worked 3.1 hitless innings with two strikeouts.
For the third consecutive game, no Newberry player finished with multiple hits. The Wolves outhit Catawba 7-6 but stranded eight baserunners to Catawba's seven.
Hunter Shepherd and Jackson Raper each had two hits for Catawba. Sawyer Strickland improved to 8-2 on the season with 5.2 innings of work, while Peyton Williams earned his 10th save of the season, and second against Newberry in the tournament, by working the ninth inning.
