NEWBERRY – Newberry scored 12 straight runs in Game One before improbably scoring twice in the final inning of Game Two to stun visiting Alabama-Huntsville and record the team's 26th and 27th wins in the last 29 regular season games at the Smith Road Complex.
In the process, Newberry handed the Chargers (3-2) their first two losses of the season and improved to 6-0 on the young season.
The doubleheader sweep was capped by
Ian Clements and
Colin Allman's heroics in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game Two. With Newberry trailing 2-1, leadoff hitter Clements was in an 0-2 hole before ripping a ground ball to the shortstop. The Chargers' infielder had a tough time getting the ball out of his glove as Clements legged out an infield single.
Dalton Lansdowne laid down a near-perfect sacrifice bunt to put Clements into scoring position before Allman jumped on the first pitch he saw, drilling it the opposite way just out of the reach of a diving right fielder. The RBI triple put the winning run 90 feet away with one out.
Tony Matos hit a looping liner to the first baseman for the second out.
Nick Butler then strode to the plate and, behind in the count 0-1, took an outside breaking ball that bounced in the dirt and escaped the UAH catcher. Allman hesitated, then broke for the plate, sliding in just below the tag to claim Newberry's fourth home walk-off win since the start of the 2019 season.
Jonathan Elicier earned the win for the Wolves with a hitless inning of relief, striking out the side and locating 14 of 19 pitches for strikes.
Josh Bookbinder had a no-decision after allowing a pair of runs on five hits through six innings.
Newberry had taken a 1-0 lead on Butler's RBI single through the left side in the third inning, but the Chargers tied the score in the next half of the frame with a two-strike, two-out single. Faced with the same scenario in the sixth inning, the Chargers again delivered to move ahead 2-1.
In the first game, UAH took advantage of a pair of costly Newberry errors to plate five unearned runs through the first three innings. The only earned run charged to defending SAC Pitcher of the Week
Tomas Sorcia, Jr., who was credited with the win, came on a pair of hits in the second.
Down 6-1 after three innings, Newberry began to rally in the bottom of the fourth. Clements lifted a two-run home run to left field to get the Wolves on the board. He then got the scoring started with an RBI double to center in the sixth inning, touching off a five-run frame that saw the Wolves snatch the lead, then hit his second home run of the game as part of a four-run seventh. In all, Newberry scored 12 straight runs from the fourth inning onward while Sorcia,
Quinton Driggers, and
Alejandro Sanchez held the Chargers' offense to 1-for-19 with a single and two hit batsmen over the same span.
The trio of Game One pitchers combined with Bookbinder and Elicier to strike out 16 Chargers in the doubleheader while issuing just four walks. Ten UAH batters managed one hit apiece throughout Saturday's 16 innings of play.
Clements was Newberry's offensive star, going 5-for-8 with four runs scored, 5 RBI, a double, and two home runs during the doubleheader.
Luke Orr had a 3-for-4 outing in the first game, with Butler collecting three hits on the day and Allman crossing the plate three times.
The teams conclude their three-game series tomorrow afternoon at the Smith Road Complex. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
