GREENWOOD – The Lander baseball team started its series with No. 15 Newberry with a bang, as the Bearcats took down the nationally-ranked Wolves 8-1 on Friday evening at Dolny Stadium.

Lander moves to 3-4 overall while Newberry drops to 8-1 overall.

Lander poured in eight runs on 13 hits and scored in all but two innings.

After sending the Wolves three-up-three-down to begin the first, the Bearcats scored their first run after a double from Chandler Moeller and a single out to left field from Vincent DeRubeis made it a 1-0 game.

The Bearcats would see two runs come across in the second inning. Landon Dupert sent a moon shot over the scoreboard in right field to put Lander up 2-0 while a sac fly from Walker McDowell brought home Ethan Wilder to move Lander ahead 3-0.

A double from Mason Streater in the third scored Ian Jenkins from second to make it 4-0 for Lander while a walk would score McDowell in the fifth to bring the total up to 5-0 for the Bearcats.

Newberry would break up the shutout on an RBI single to center field to score a runner from third in the top of the fifth.

Lander would see another ball leave Dolny Stadium, this time from Streater as he sent one flying over the left field fence to put Lander up 6-1 in the bottom of the inning.

The sixth inning would see neither team plate any runs while the seventh would see a double to right-center from McDowell to score Matthew Burgess while a sac fly to center from Bradley Davis brought home McDowell to give Lander its 8-1 advantage.

Lander's pitchers helped shutdown the Wolves the entire game. Bennett Sloper earned his first win after starting the first five innings. He struck out three while allowing just one run on six hits.

Kurt Rogers dealt three scoreless innings of relief while striking out three Wolves. Zach Pellegrino pitched a scoreless ninth inning where he struck out two of the three batters he faced.

Lander and Newberry resume the series at Newberry on February 19 with a 2 pm start.

#cLawsUp | @LanderBaseball