SW Virginia News

Cavs Fall In Slugfest To No. 23 Wolves

No. 23 Newberry completed a three-game sweep of UVA Wise with a 19-16 South Atlantic Conference baseball victory at Stallard Field Sunday. The victorious Wolves lined 17 hits and took advantage of five Cavalier errors as the two schools played in temperatures below freezing with snow falling throughout most of the contest.

UVA Wise (9-19, 1-8 SAC) came to bat in the home eighth trailing 19-16 and the hosts appeared to be on the cusp of inching closer as Brandon Costa's team loaded the bases with nobody out.

The momentum would be short lived as Newberry (22-4, 8-1 SAC) reliever Wesley Livingston would retire the next three men, recording two strikeouts in the process to keep his team in front by three.

An inning later, the Cavs again came to bat down three and again would put pressure on the Wolves. This time UVA Wise would load the bases with one out but, once more the hosts would come up empty. Joe LaFiora would retire the next three hitters in order to notch his second save of the season and his second of the weekend to complete the sweep.

Newberry overcame an early 7-2 deficit as UVA Wise's Cole Harness belted a grand slam in the second inning.

Harness' grand slam was matched by the Wolves' Donovan Ford who hit a grand slam as part of an eight-run third inning that put the visitors ahead 10-7.

After a single Newberry run in the fourth, UVA Wise tied the game at 11-11 behind a four-run fourth inning.

The Wolves would commit four errors in the inning to help propel the Cavs to the big frame.

Errors were a common theme in the contest, Newberry was charged with six errors while UVA Wise committed five miscues; the mistakes led to a combined 11 unearned runs in the game.

Newberry quickly went back on top with a four-run fifth inning. In the frame, the Wolves received a two-run single by Braylin Marine. Marine finished the day 4-for-6 with four runs scored and three RBI as the league's leading hitter raised his average to .479.

The lead would be sliced in half after the Cavs finished batting in the home half of the fifth. Hunter Meador supplied the runs in the inning when his two-run double allowed D'Sean Prinkleton and DJ Dickson to scamper home.

Leading 15-13, the Wolves stayed on attack in the sixth and seventh. Newberry plated a pair in the sixth thanks to a double from Kade Fairthcloth and an error from UVA Wise before scoring twice more in the seventh when Jesse Free and Fairthcloth each had an RBI.

Down 19-13, the Cavs scored three times in the seventh. Hunter Meador had an RBI single before run-scoring groundouts by Justin Reed and Morgan Miller set the stage for the late-inning near misses.

Twelve different men went to the mound in the game. Newberry's Wyatt Carey was credited with the win while Nash Bingham suffered the mound defeat. The 12 hurlers combined to throw 399 pitches in the contest.

Ford joined Marine with four hits in the win while Nick Badgett (2), Prinkleton (2), Harness (2), Matt Frye (2), Meador (3) and Jacob Boyle (4) had multi-hit games in the loss.

Sunday's game took three hours and 49 minutes, with 34 players appearing in the contest.

Harness' homer was the 22nd of his career, moving him to fourth in school history.

Next up for UVA Wise a non-conference game with King University Wednesday.

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