NEWBERRY — After moving up in the national polls, the No. 5 Newberry College (32-6) baseball team continued to bolster their resume on the season as they turned in a 13-2 win over the Bobcats of Georgia College and State University on Wednesday, April 12 at the Smith Road Complex.
Junior Matias Marchesini (Asheville, N.C.) picked up the win on the mound, tossing five innings allowing just one run on six hits. The Wolves bullpen only allowed one run and two hits over the final four innings of work. Senior Braylin Marine (Freeport, N.Y.) led the team with three RBIs on the night as he went 3-for-4 at the plate. Junior Jacob LeBron (Lexington) and sophomore Jesse Free (Moncks Corner) each posted a pair of RBIs in the contest as well. The Wolves were able to scatter 12 hits on the night.
While both teams went scoreless in the opening frame, the Wolves were able to post four runs on the board in the bottom of the second to take the early lead. A sacrifice bunt sandwiched by a pair of singles scored the first run of the day for Newberry before a pair of wild pitches left a runner just 90 feet away. A single through the infield by sophomore Hunter French (Minneola, Fla.) brought around the second run of the inning.
After moving over the third on a long fly-out, French caught the Bobcat pitcher sleeping as he scurried down the base path picking up the third run of the frame with a steal of home. LeBron plated the last run of the frame with a single to center field that brought the margin to 4-0. Another run was plated in the bottom of the third as Free knocked a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to five.
A trio of runs were put on the board in the fourth as a defensive miscue and a pair of stolen bases led to a two-RBI triple by Marine that brought around the first two runs of the frame. Marine himself found his way home on a sacrifice fly on the next at-bat to give the Wolves the 8-0 lead. The Bobcats scratched across a run in the fifth and were able to hold the Wolves scoreless in the inning, but they added four more runs to the bottom line of the scoreboard in the six.
A RBI-single, a wild pitch and a two-run error by the Bobcats defense led to those four runs, giving Newberry the 12-1 advantage. Another RBI-triple in the bottom of the seventh by LeBron added another run to the tally for Newberry while the Bobcats added one in the top of the eighth, but it wasn’t enough as they Wolves took home the 13-2 win.