NEWBERRY, S.C. – The Newberry Wolves (27-16, 17-8 South Atlantic Conference) earned a series victory over the Carson-Newman Eagles (23-17, 11-15 SAC) for the first time since 2011 by taking both games of Saturday's doubleheader at the Smith Road Complex 5-1 and 7-3 in eight innings.
"I think the effort was there," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "I think [Newberry's] mentality and intensity in the situations was better than ours. They had 10 hits in the first game, five of them with two strikes. Instead of putting them away, they are getting hits. We stranded runners and missed opportunities to close the gap in the first game. In the second game, when you can increase that lead from 3-0 to 4-0, we don't move runners with less than two outs."
Game No. 1 – Newberry 5, Carson-Newman 1
After Carson-Newman starting pitcher Quinton Yocom (Cable, Ohio) retired the first two batters of the bottom of the first inning, he fell behind Albert Baur 1-0. The Newberry first basemen clobbered a solo home run well over the rightfield scoreboard to make it a 1-0 contest. The home run for Baur was his 14th this season and moved into a tie for first place on the Wolves' all-time list with his 27th career blast.
Newberry batted around in the bottom of the third inning plating three runs. With the bases loaded and no one out, a single to right by JoJo Bradley and a single to center by D.J. Martinez plated runs to make it 3-0. An error by senior leftfielder Bo Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) allowed the Wolves to extend their lead to four runs.
Three straight singles capped by an RBI base hit to right field by senior centerfielder Joe Tipton (Dandridge, Tenn.) put the Eagles on the scoreboard for the first time in the top of the fifth frame to make it a 4-1 game.
Martinez tripled to the wall in left-centerfield with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning and scored on a sacrifice fly to leftfield by catcher Jeff Sneed to extend the Newberry lead to 5-1.
Both sides left nine men on base in the game as the Eagles went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the contest. Senior catcher J.D. Cowart (Athens, Tenn.) notched his third multi-hit game of the year going 2-for-4 in the game with a double.
Yocom fell to 3-3 on the season despite hurling his third complete game of the year working eight inning while yielding five earned runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts and three walks.
Newberry starting pitcher Wesley Camp improved to 7-2 on the year by allowing one run on seven hits over eight innings while matching a career-high with nine strikeouts.
Game No. 2 – Newberry 7, Carson-Newman 3 (8 innings)
Carson-Newman opened the scoring in the top of the third inning as the Eagles batted around in the frame. Senior shortstop Bryan Everhart (Greeneville, Tenn.) singled to centerfield and moved to second on a fielding error to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt, Cowart floated a ball over a drawn-in infield to leftfield to score Everhart and put the Eagles on top 1-0. With the bases loaded and two outs, senior first basemen Evan Jurjevic (New Carlisle, Ind.) blooped a single to rightfield to score a pair and extend the advantage to 3-0.
Junior southpaw Jamie Miller (Wardensville, W.V.) allowed his first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, a solid single to leftfield by Bradley, after a walk to start the stanza. A squeeze bunt up the first base line by Martinez allowed Brandon Sheridan to score and pull the Wolves within two runs.
Miller had retired eight-in-a-row including the first two of the sixth inning before Bradley singled to centerfield. Martinez worked a 10-pitch at-bat before tripling to the wall in rightfield to pull the Wolves within a run and force the Eagles to go to the bullpen. Senior righthander Michael Cogliano (Medford, N.J.) entered and gave up a single to leftfield by catcher Jeff Sneed to tie the score at three.
Baur laced a double to the left-centerfield gap to start the bottom of the eighth inning. After a sacrifice bunt moved him to third base, Griffin elected to intentionally walk the bases loaded with one out. Sneed drove a 0-1 offering over the leftfield wall for his second home run of the season to help the Wolves improve to 3-0 in extra-inning games this year.
Miller did not earn a win for the first time in five starts while striking out a career-high nine batters over 5.2 innings of work while yielding three hits, three walks and three earned runs.
Everhart and Tipton each had two hits as the Eagles outhit the Wolves 8-6 in the contest.
"There's nine seniors on this club that have played a lot of games," Griffin said. "It's their club. They have to figure out what they have to do tomorrow to be ready to play."
The series wraps up Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at the Smith Road Complex as fans can check a complimentary audio stream by visiting cneagles.com/live courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network.
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