NEWBERRY, S.C. – In just their second conference series of the year, the Newberry College (18-4, 5-1 SAC) baseball team picked up their first series sweep as they took a pair from the Lions of Mars Hill by scores of 13-6 and 3-2 on Saturday, March 11 at the Smith Road Complex.
Freshman Bennett Roemer (Bluffton, S.C.) and sophomore Tyler Chinpire (Jupiter, Fla.) each picked up wins on the mound, with Chinpire tossing a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his contest, while Roemer didn't allow a single earned run over his five innings of work in the early game. Junior Jacob LeBron (Lexigton, S.C.) led the Wolves with five RBIs on the day while senior Braylin Marine (Freeport, N.Y.) recorded four between the two contests.
Game One: Newberry 13, Mars Hill 6
The Wolves would come out the gate scoring a majority of their runs in the contest over the first three runs of the contest. That got kicked-off with a trio of runs on the board in the first as Marine, sophomore Jonathan Velez (Mayaguez, P.R.) and junior Rhett Jolly (Edgefield, S.C.) would all record RBI-singles in the frame to give the Wolves the early 3-0 lead.
Another three runs were added to the Newberry tally in the bottom of the second a this time it was sophomore Jomar Lugo (San Sebastian, P.R.) who notched an RBI-single to bring around one while LeBron plated the other two runs later in the inning with a two RBI-double to extend the lead to 6-0. Not to be outdone, a pair of triples by LeBron and freshman John Allen Forrester (West Columbia, S.C.), as well as a wild pitch, brought around four runs for the Wolves in the third to give them the 10-0 lead.
Another wild pitch in the fourth put another run on the board for Newberry before the Lions were able to get their offense going in the top of the fifth, plating five runs and bringing the score to 11-5. Newberry responded in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly, a category the Wolves lead the nation in, to extend the lead back to seven. Each team added a run in the eighth, but Newberry shut the Lions down the rest of the way to pick up the 13-6 win.
Game Two: Newberry 3, Mars Hill 2
Pitching was the name of the game for the Wolves in the nightcap on the series as Chinpire would roll through the Lions line-up through the first six innings of the contest allowing just two runners aboard through walks. His no-hitter was broken up in the top of the sixth with a home run, but he was able to keep the Lions off the board with five strikeouts.
Runs were few and far between for the Wolves in the second game as they were able to score single runs in the first, third and fifth innings to eventually pick up the 3-2 win in the contest. Marine knocked a single up the middle in the first to bring LeBron home and give them the first run of the late game.
LeBron added to his day's RBI count in the third as his hard ground out plated another run, giving the Wolves the 2-0 advantage. Marine recorded another RBI in the contest as was able to bring Ford around from second to plate the final run of the day for Newberry.
The Wolves will hit the road for a stint as they travel to Aiken, S.C. to take on the Pacers of USC Aiken in a non-conference match-up on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m.
