Newberry Baseball Plays Long Game to Defeat Dunnellon
NEWBERRY — Panthers baseball had to hold off the winless Dunnellon Tigers for a 10-9 win on a brisk Tuesday night.
The game started out promising for the Tigers (0-8) with five hits and three runs. That was until junior shortstop Tavis Honeycutt stepped up to the plate for the Panthers (5-2) and crushed a two-run homer, his sixth in the seven games this season.
“Obviously, hitting very well right now. I’m just trying to see ball, hit ball,” Honeycutt, the University of Florida commit, said.
A double down the third base line put Honeycutt on base in the third inning. He went on to steal third and was brought home off a wild pitch to tie the game 3-3.
It went downhill in the fourth inning when Dunnellon scored three runs and Newberry couldn’t gather a single hit.
However, the fifth inning brought a sense of relief for chilly Panthers fans. The ball-to-bat symphony was playing, as Newberry tallied seven runs off seven hits (four doubles and three singles). It went through the entire batting order in the inning for a 10-6 lead.
“We found a way to win, and we had some big hits and some big plays there late in the game,” Newberry coach Mike Spina said.
Dunnellon brought home two runs in the sixth inning and one in the seventh, but it still wasn’t enough to put out the fire the Panthers lit in the fifth.
If only the glove of the Tigers catcher could connect with the ball as well as Honeycutt’s bat could — the game may have ended differently.
Honeycutt led Newberry by going 3-for-3, scoring three runs and driving in two. Junior third baseman Koleby Benson and senior catcher Trey Priester joined Honeycutt in multiple hits, each going 2-for-4.
Benson smashed a single in the second inning and bunted one in the fifth. Priester also hit two singles, one in the third inning where he was left on base and another in the fifth inning where he made it home.
The Tigers out hit the Panthers 12-11, but couldn’t translate them into runs as efficiently as the Panthers.
“They put on the same shoes as we do. They put on the same clothes as we do. We go out there and we compete with anybody,” Honeycutt said.
Newberry will next face the Lafayette Hornets (4-2) in another home game Thursday at 7 p.m.
Category: Baseball, Gainesville, High School Sports, Newberry High School
