ROCK HILL – Fresh off its first-ever regular season South Atlantic Conference title and NCAA postseason appearance, Newberry has been picked second in the SAC preseason coaches' poll with a league-high seven players selected to preseason all-conference teams.
 
The Wolves garnered 124 points in the poll and received four first-place votes. Newberry was narrowly eclipsed by Catawba, who won the 2019 league tournament and represented the Southeast Region at the Division II College World Series. The Catawba Indians received the remaining eight first-place votes and had 128 total points in the poll.
 
Newberry's seven preseason all-conference selections were the most of any school, while its three first team representatives matched Catawba for the most in the league.
 
The Wolves accounted for three-fourths of the first team pitching contingent. 2019 SAC Freshman of the Year Josh Bookbinder and 2019 Honorable Mention All-SAC selection Tomas Sorcia, Jr. were preseason first team picks. Quinton Driggers, whose breakout junior season landed him Second Team All-America honors from two publications, is the first team reliever.
 
Sophomores Nick Butler and Zane Tarrance were both named to the second team outfield. The potent double play combination of second baseman Dalton Lansdowne and shortstop Colin Allman joined Butler and Tarrance on the second team.

Tomas Sorcia, Jr. - First Team Starting Pitcher
Sorcia was one of Newberry's most steady pitchers in the regular season after establishing himself as the Wolves' primary starter in Game One of Saturday's doubleheaders. He is 7-0 on the season, with six of his wins coming against conference opponents, with a 4.88 ERA in 62.2 innings pitched.

He was named SAC Pitcher of the Week for his start against Anderson, in which he took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and gave up one unearned run on two hits in a career-high eight innings. Newberry has won all 11 games that Sorcia has started on the mound. Left-handed batters have hit .194 against him in 72 official at-bats, one of two pitchers on staff with a mark below the Mendoza line in the category.

Josh Bookbinder - First Team Starting Pitcher
The SAC Freshman of the Year tied Driggers, Wesley Camp (2015), and Scott Butcher (1993) for the most wins in school history, finishing the season with a 9-3 record and a 3.68 ERA. He led the SAC with six complete games and two shutouts, both of which were seven-inning complete-game efforts.
 
He finished second in the league in innings pitched (93.0) and ranked second in at-bats against (354), having found a home in the rotation as the "Saturday seven-inning game" starter. He threw a three-hit, complete-game shutout in the SAC title-clinching win at Lincoln Memorial, an effort that earned him both SAC and Southeast Region Pitcher of the Week honors.
 
Bookbinder threw six or more innings with two or fewer runs allowed on eight occasions this season and went 6-1 with five complete games and a 3.53 ERA in SAC games. He was named a First Team All-SAC starting pitcher and to the league's all-tournament team in addition to his Freshman of the Year honor.

Quinton Driggers - First Team Relief Pitcher
Driggers has transformed into one of the most dominant relievers in the nation in 2019. He finished the regular season as one of two players in all three NCAA divisions with nine wins and six saves on the season, led the nation with 4.32 hits allowed per nine innings, and was fourth nationally with a 1.40 ERA. He appeared in 29 games, the eighth-most nationally, and his walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) of 0.94 is ninth in Division II.
 
The junior First Team All-Region and All-SAC selection, SAC All-Defensive Team member, and SAC All-Tournament Team pick struck out 94 batters, third-most in the SAC this season and fifth-most in school history, and set a school record with an opponents' batting average of .145.
 
Driggers was twice named SAC Pitcher of the Week and earned a Southeast Region Pitcher of the Week selection, threw 21.1 consecutive scoreless innings in a 26-day span in March and April, and did not allow an earned run in conference play.

Zane Tarrance - Second Team Outfielder
Tarrance had an impressive freshman campaign, playing in every game with 54 starts in right field and recording a .296 batting average. A speedy hitter who made a home in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, Tarrance drew 23 walks to raise his on-base percentage to .391, finished third on the team with 42 runs scored, and had the third-most multiple-hit games on the team with 14. His 4-for-5 performance in a win at Wingate were tied for the most hits by one player in a single game.

Tarrance's 16 sacrifice bunts were the second-most in Division II in 2019. He was also a menace on the basepaths, finishing the year with 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts. But arguably his best work was done in the field, where he compiled a .981 fielding percentage with an astonishing six outfield assists.

Nick Butler - Second Team Outfielder
Butler made a large impact in his redshirt freshman season, establishing himself as the starter in left field during the third weekend and breaking out with a 3-for-3 game that included a double, a triple, a stolen base, and three runs scored against Kentucky Wesleyan on Feb. 17. He ranked second on the team with both a .336 batting average and a .500 slugging percentage and had the fourth-most multi-hit games with 11.

In all, Butler played in 45 of Newberry's 55 games and ranked fourth on the team with 40 games started. He fielded .981 in 54 defensive chances and recorded an outfield assist at Carson-Newman on April 6.

Dalton Lansdowne - Second Team Second Baseman
A steady presence that has started all 103 games over the past two seasons, Lansdowne finished fourth on the team with a .324 batting average and went 18-for-22 on stolen base attempts. His 15 multi-hit games ranked second on the team, while his 17-game hitting streak that spanned almost all of March was Newberry's longest of the season and raised his batting average by 86 percentage points. His most impressive game in that stretch came in a win over Mars Hill, in which he went 3-for-4 with four RBI, two runs scored, and a stolen base.

Lansdowne strung together five consecutive multi-hit games in March and had two separate streaks of nine or more games with at least one run scored, helping him to rank second on the team with 45 runs scored despite hitting in the No. 9 spot in the order in all but two games this season. His 35 RBI also rank second on the team.

Defensively, the sophomore fielded .966 overall, .971 in SAC games, and was involved in 32 of Newberry's 40 double plays in 2019.

Colin Allman - Second Team Shortstop
Allman made an impactful return to the lineup since being reinserted on March 5 after missing a month with injury. He appeared in 40 games overall in 2019 with 38 starts, sporting a .299 batting average with a .411 on-base percentage and .455 slugging percentage. He has gone 14-for-16 on stolen base attempts and fielded .910 overall.

Allman's impact, however, is best measured through his 19 appearances with 18 starts in conference games as he worked his way back from injury. Against SAC opponents, his batting average rose to .323, his on-base percentage to .413 and his slugging percentage to .484. Nine of his 20 hits in league play went for extra bases and he recorded 14 RBI.

He had a 15-game hitting streak and a 23-game reached base streak that both ranked among the team's best in 2019 and has the second-most double plays turned this season with 22.