FLORENCE, S.C. (April 9) – With six players recording multi-hit performances, the University of Mount Olive baseball program powered past Newberry by a 16-11 margin on Tuesday afternoon at Carolina Bank Field.
With the win, the Trojans snap a seven-game skid to improve to 21-16 this season and are set to travel to Rome, Georgia, this weekend for a three-game series at Shorter. Mount Olive has won the last four matchups in the series with Newberry, with the sides meeting the previous three years at a neutral site. Meanwhile, the Wolves fall to 20-19 overall.
Mount Olive established a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after redshirt sophomore
Jon Howard laced an RBI double to right-center with two outs. The Trojans added three more runs in the second frame, as senior
Wade Kelly hit an RBI single through the left side before junior
Kayden Crawford recorded an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, Kelly scored on a wild pitch from third to extend the lead to 4-0. Newberry answered back in the bottom of the second with six runs on five hits to take a 6-4 edge.
In the top of the third, the Trojans countered with five runs on four hits, highlighted by a two-run homer from redshirt senior
Mike Kenney and a two-run single from junior
Dawson Ables, 9-6. The Wolves brought in another run to the bottom of the fourth, but Ables registered an RBI single to left-center to regain the three-run advantage in the fifth, 10-7. UMO extended the lead in the sixth frame with a sacrifice fly from Kenney and an RBI triple by junior
Tariq Talley, 12-7.
Following a scoreless seventh, junior
Ryder Hancock drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs to put Mount Olive ahead by a 13-7 margin. The Wolves trimmed the deficit to 13-9 in the eighth before UMO responded with three runs on four hits, highlighted by RBI doubles from redshirt junior
Garrett Moffett and
Jon Howard, 16-9. Despite a pair of runs by Newberry in the bottom of the ninth, the Trojans secured the non-conference win with a final score of 16-11.
Jon Howard finished 3-for-6 with three runs batted in, while Ables went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Crawford, Moffett, and junior
Lane McLean each totaled three hits and combined for eight runs scored. Talley reached base five times after going 2-for-3 with one RBI, two runs scored, and three walks.
Freshman
Kole Hopkins earned the win (2-0) after yielding one earned run on one hit with two strikeouts in 2.0 innings of relief. Senior
Witt Branham was also effective out of the bullpen with 2.0 scoreless innings pitched with one strikeout.
The Trojans return to action on Friday, April 11, to start a three-game series versus Shorter with Game 1 set to start at 2 p.m.
