Courtesy of Newberry College Athletics
NEWBERRY — The Newberry College (5-2) baseball team was able to pick-up a 9-2 win over the Warriors of Southern Wesleyan at home on Wednesday, February 15.
Junior Jacob LeBron (Lexington) and sophomore Jomar Lugo (San Sebastian, P.R.) each posted a trio of hits on the day with the prior recording a trio of RBIs while Lugo added in one himself. Seniors Braylin Marine (Freeport, N.Y.) and Joe LaFiora (Philadelphia, Pa.) both pitched in a pair of RBIs on the night while junior Henry Gibson (Walterboro) notched one as well. Junior Matias Marchesini (Asheville, N.C.) picked up his first win in a Newberry jersey after going three innings in a bullpen day for the Wolves.
Both squads were quickly retired in the opening frame of action, but the Wolves broke the deadlock in the bottom of the second as a double by sophomore Jonathan Velez (Mayaguez, P.R.) put him in scoring position before a sacrifice bunt moved him just 90-feet away from the first score of the contest. And that came just one batter later a LaFiora knocked a sacrifice fly to deep right field, plating the first run of the game.
Sophomore Jesse Free (Moncks Corner) kept the ball rolling with a triple in the left center field gap, finding his way home on a single by Lugo just one batter later to give the Wolves the 2-0 lead after two. The Wolves set-up to break a big inning in the third, but would only muster a single run. With no outs and the bases juiced, a strikeout and a double play would wrap up the inning, but because of the timing play on the third out the Wolves added one run to extend their lead to 3-0.
The teams went quiet until the bottom of the fifth when the Wolves were able to add another run to their tally with a single up the middle with two runners in scoring position by Gibson. The Warriors were finally able to get on the board in the top of the sixth, but the Wolves responded with a pair of their own in the bottom of the frame with LeBron picking up two RBIs on a drive through the right side of the infield.
LeBron earned another RBI in the bottom of the eighth with a sacrifice fly that extended the Newberry lead to 7-1 and was further extended to an eight-run advantage later in the inning with a two-run no doubter from Marine to bring the score to 9-1. Southern Wesleyan was able to scratch across a single run in the top of the ninth, but the Wolves shut them down from there, picking up the 9-2 win.