FLORENCE — The Newberry College (2-1) baseball team suffered their first setback of the season as they dropped a 12-7 decision to the Patriots of Francis Marion University (1-2) on their first road trip of the season, in a fog-shortened eight inning affair.
Senior Braylin Marine (Freeport, N.Y.) was the lone member of the Wolves to record multiple hits as he went 2-for-4 at the plate in the contest. He also tallied two RBIs to his credit. Four other Wolves recorded RBIs on the day while sophomores Jonathan Velez (Mayaguez, P.R.) and Kade Faircloth (Oviedo, Fla.) recorded the other hits for Newberry on the day. Three pitchers for the Wolves were able to hold the Patriots scoreless during their time on the mound, with the longest stretch coming from junior Colm O’Shea (Sunnyside, N.Y.) who threw one and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball.
The Wolves were able to continue their trend from the weekend of getting off to an early lead as junior Jacob LeBron (Lexington) got aboard due to a defensive miscue and was and was brought around to score on a pair of wild pitches to give Newberry the early 1-0 lead. That would not last long as the Patriots posted a run of their own in the bottom of the frame to even the score.
The Wolves got right back to it though as they added two more runs in the top of the second off a pair of sacrifice flies by junior Rhett Jolly (Edgefield) and freshman John Allen Forrester (West Columbia) to extend their lead to 3-1. The Patriots scratched across a run in the bottom the second to make it a 3-2 ballgame, and that’s where the margin sat until the bottom of the fifth when Francis Marion was able to plate six runs in the frame to swing the lead to their favor, 8-3.
Unable to respond in the top of the sixth, the Patriots seized another opportunity in the bottom of the inning to increase their lead as they notched four more runs to bring the score to 12-3. However, the Wolves did not go silently as they turned around and turned in three runs of their own in the top of the seventh to cut into the Patriots lead. Newberry scratched across another run in the top of the eighth and were looking to continue their comeback bid heading into the ninth, but fog rolling into the area forced the game to be called in the bottom of the eighth, giving the Patriots the 12-7 win.