NEWBERRY — Wolves baseball take two of three games in their weekend series against Barton College. A late home run gave Newberry College in win on Friday evening, and they split a pair of games on Saturday.
Game 1: Wolves 11, Barton 8
Newberry baseball posted an 11–8 win over Barton College on Feb. 6 at the Smith Road Complex, using an early burst and late power to hold off a ninth-inning push. The Wolves jumped out quickly in the first when Bryson Nuckols ripped an RBI triple to left-center to score Luke Compton, then came home on a wild pitch to make it 2–0. Newberry added three more in the second, an RBI single from Chandler Mims, an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Compton, and a Nuckols sacrifice fly to build a 5–0 advantage.
Barton chipped away with runs in the third and fourth to cut into the lead, but Newberry answered with steady offense: John Allen Forrester drove in a run with a groundout in the fifth, Jomar Lugo brought home another with an RBI groundout in the sixth after Cooper Raines tripled, and Mims added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to make it 8–5. The Wolves then delivered the knockout punch in the eighth, as Compton homered and Nick Foster followed with a two-run homer to push the lead to 11–5. Barton scored three runs in the ninth, but Cayden Hansen recorded the final outs to secure the save and close out the win.
Game 2: Wolves 10, Barton 5
In the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader, Newberry College baseball rallied from an early deficit to defeat Barton College, 10–5, on Feb. 7 at the Smith Road Complex. Barton took a 3–0 lead in the second on a three-run home run and added another in the third to go up 4–0, but the Wolves answered immediately when Nick Foster launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the third to cut it to 4–2.
Newberry then took control with a four-run fourth inning, getting an RBI on Chandler Mims reaching on an error, an RBI hit-by-pitch from Keillor Osbon, an RBI walk by Finn McLaughlin, and an RBI single by Logan Busenlehner to grab a 6–4 advantage. The Wolves added two more in the fifth on Luke Compton’s sacrifice bunt RBI and Foster’s RBI single, then answered Barton’s lone sixth-inning run with an RBI single from Cooper Raines to make it 9–5. Busenlehner capped the scoring with a solo home run in the eighth as Newberry closed out the 10–5 win.
Foster powered the offense, going 2-for-2 with three RBI, including the two-run home run, while Busenlehner finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and the late homer. On the mound, Nick Riedel earned the win in relief, tossing 5.0 innings and allowing just one run while striking out six, and Blake Morrison worked a clean final inning to finish it off.
Game 2: Wolves 8, Barton 9
In the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader at the Smith Road Complex, Newberry College baseball dropped a 9–8 decision to Barton College in a tightly contested game that saw multiple lead changes and late rally attempts. After falling behind 2–0 in the second, the Wolves responded with a five-run second inning featuring a series of run-producing plays, including an RBI single by Cooper Raines, an RBI walk by Luke Compton, an RBI walk by Parker Mergo, and an RBI fielder’s choice from Campbell McCurry, and Compton later added a run by stealing home, giving Newberry a 5–2 edge. Newberry added an RBI in the third as Finn McLaughlin drove in John Allen Forrester, pushing the lead to 6–2.
After a huge 5-run inning from the Bulldogs to take a 7-6 lead, the game was all tied up 8-8 heading into the final inning after a walk-in run and a score off a wild pitch. Barton ended up taking the game off a SAC fly in the top of the seventh, a lead the Wolves couldn’t overcome in the end.
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