GREENWOOD – The Lander baseball team smacked four home runs, scattered 21 hits and earned head coach Jason Burke his first career win Tuesday night when the Bearcats downed Newberry, 19-7, in a non-conference contest at Dolny Stadium.

Lander improves to 1-3 overall, while Newberry drops to 1-3.

Colton Rogers (1-0) was awarded the win after striking out three and walking one in 4.1 innings. Rogers allowed five runs on nine hits. Newberry's Quinton Dirggers (0-1) took the loss after surrendering four earned runs on five hits in just one inning. The Wolves used seven different pitchers on the night. 

Joseph Whitt earned the save (1) by tossing 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out six and walking one. 

Newberry took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Bailey Connell set the tone for Lander with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. Carson Jones put the Bearcats ahead for good with a two-run single and Mason Dodd ended the inning with a two-run homer to give Lander a 5-2 lead. 

After plating two more runs, Lander broke the game open on a three-run homer from Reed Gray in the bottom of the third to extend the lead to 10-2. 

Newberry rallied to make it 10-5 in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Danton Hyman and a two-RBI triple from Daymon Totherow, but the Bearcats answered with an Alec Dowell double that plated Colton Yeager in the bottom of the inning. 

Leading 14-5 heading into the eighth, Lander exploded for five more runs. Alex Conaway scored on a wild pitch, Zach Giczewski launched a two-run homer to right field, Connell drove in Gray on a double and Yeager plated Connell on an RBI single to end the scoring.

For Lander, Gray batted 3-for-3 with four RBI, Giczewski 3-for-5 with two RBI, Jones 3-for-5 with three RBI, and Yeager 3-for-6 with one RBI.

For Newberry, Totherow went 2-for-5 with two RBI.