FOREST CITY, N.C. --- McKenly Berry pitched eight strong innings as the fifth-seeded Tusculum College baseball team led wire-to-wire in an 8-4 win over No. 4 seed Newberry College, in an elimination game of the 2014 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament on Saturday at McNair Field.

The Pioneers (28-20) advance to Championship Sunday as the Pioneers will have a rematch against No. 2 seed Wingate University at 1 p.m. The winner of the Tusculum/Wingate game will meet Catawba College in the SAC Tournament championship game at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Tusculum jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a RBI double from Heath Comerford and a two-run single by Scott Gibson.

Newberry posted a run in the second and another in the fifth to trim the Tusculum lead to 3-2.

The Pioneers responded with one run in the fifth and seventh innings and plated three more in the eighth inning to give Berry an 8-2 cushion heading to the ninth inning.

The Wolves (29-23) put together a push in their last at-bat, scoring a pair of runs and had runners on the corners with two outs. But reliever Clark Ayers got the final out of the game to send the Pioneers into the final day of the tournament.

Berry (3-2) scattered six hits, four runs, three earned, walked three and struck out four in his 118-pitch performance. In his 8 1/3 innings of work, Berry retired the side in order four times, including the seventh and eighth innings.

Comerford finished the game with his 15th and 16th doubles of the season in his 2-for-3 performance which included a pair of RBI and his SAC-leading 46th walk, which is the third most in TC single-season history.

The trio of Comerford, Jeremiah Tullidge and Vinny Ferrara scored two runs apiece, while Trey Drewery went 2-for-5 with a RBI in the contest.

- TC -