Newberry sweeps Eagles on Saturday afternoon, 4-3 and 7-4
NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College Wolves finished off a sweep of South Atlantic Conference foe Carson-Newman with a pair of wins at the Smith Road Complex on Saturday. The Wolves won the first game, 4-3, and took a 7-4 victory in the nightcap.
NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College Wolves finished off a sweep of South Atlantic Conference foe Carson-Newman with a pair of wins at the Smith Road Complex on Saturday. The Wolves won the first game, 4-3, and took a 7-4 victory in the nightcap.
Newberry (7-5, 3-0 SAC) will play a pair of midweek games on the road at Coker on Tuesday and at Erskine on Wednesday before traveling to Brevard for its next SAC weekend series. Carson-Newman (3-10, 0-3 SAC) plays at Lander on Tuesday and hosts Anderson next weekend.
Game One: Newberry 4, Carson-Newman 3
The Wolves fell behind in the second inning on a two-run homer by C-N's Kyle Koeneman (Seymour, Tenn.), but put up three runs in the bottom of the sixth and held the Eagles off to earn the series win.
Newberry starter Josh McElwee struck out four batters in 3.2 innings of work, but trailed when he left the game thanks to Koeneman's two-run blast to left field. But Matt Mege (Levittown, N.Y.; 1-1) did a solid job as his replacement, allowing just one run on two hits in 3.1 innings to earn the win.
The Wolves had cut the Eagle lead to 2-1 on an RBI groundout by Zach Morgan (Simpsonville, S.C.), but Carson-Newman's Jonathan Dalton (Rutledge, Tenn.) led off the sixth with a double, Koeneman walked and Evan Patterson (Knoxville, Tenn.) hit a single to load the bases with no outs. Mege extracted himself from the jam with a double play and a strikeout, allowing just one run.
Newberry took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning with a two-out rally started by an RBI double by Jovan Rohena (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico). Morgan reached on an error and Sanchez Gartman (Newberry, S.C.) hit an RBI single to tie the game. After a Carson-Newman pitching change, Morgan scored on a wild pitch to give Newberry its first lead of the day.
Mege pitched one more scoreless inning and Kyle Christian (Charleston, S.C.) picked up his first save of the season by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth innings.
Game Two: Newberry 7, Carson-Newman 4
Carson-Newman broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth, but Newberry's four runs in the bottom of the frame would push the Wolves to the series sweep.
The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the second when Koeneman scored on a wild pitch on a strikeout that should have ended the inning. Newberry took the lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Evan Darr (North Augusta, S.C.) and a run-scoring groundout by Chris Love (Columbia, S.C.), but Koeneman tied the game in the top of the fourth with his second homer of the day, this one a solo shot to left.
Troy Zawadzki (Shrewsbury, Mass.) led off the Carson-Newman fifth with a triple and RBIs from Patterson and Aaron Vargas (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) gave the Eagles a 4-2 lead.
The Wolves rallied with four runs in the bottom of the inning to earn the win. Kevin Rufus (Andrews, S.C.) and Andy Vogel (Marietta, Ga.) hit back-to-back singles, with Rufus scoring when Darr reached on an error. A two-run double by Love gave Newberry the lead and Rohena tacked on with a sacrifice fly to center to give Newberry a 6-4 lead. The Wolves added an insurance run in the sixth after Gartman led off with a double and came home on an RBI single by Patrick Regalado (Hialeah, Fla.).
Cole Robison (Greer, S.C.; 2-1) picked up the win for Newberry, allowing four runs on six hits, striking out two. Nate Edler (Winter Springs, Fla.) picked up the save with two scoreless innings of relief on just one hit.
(Courtesy of Newberry Sports Information)
