LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- The Covenant baseball team secured its second straight USA South series win with a doubleheader split with Huntingdon on Saturday afternoon. The Scots lost game one, 12-6, but rebounded in the second game as Alex Kerr's solo homer in the eighth propelled Covenant to an 11-10 victory.
Covenant (12-17, 5-10 USA South) remains in the hunt for a USA South Tournament berth with the series win. The Scots have one final three-game series left in league play before the tournament begins on April 12. The top eight teams in the conference qualify.
GAME ONE: Huntingdon 12, Covenant 6
Huntingdon jumped out to an 8-0 lead and would withstand a Covenant rally in the middle innings to take game one of the doubleheader 12-6.
The visiting Hawks scored single runs in the first and second innings before exploding for six runs in the fourth to go ahead 8-0.
Covenant would rally as the Scots got on the scoreboard with two runs in its half of the fourth. Trenton Nobles doubled home Kerr before Christian Murray produced an RBI single that plated Nobles to cut the deficit to 8-6. In the fifth, the Scots scored four more time as Joel Johnson and Forrest Hunter had RBI hits to make it 8-4. Later in the frame, Kerr had a sacrifice fly and Nobles an RBI ground out to make it 8-6.
But that was as close as Covenant got as Huntingdon scored three runs in the sixth and another in the seventh for the final margin.
Hunter, Nobles and Murray all had two hits apiece for Covenant, with Nobles driving in two runs. Caleb Bloye went 1-for-3 with a run and two walks. Drew Bradley (2-3) started and picked up the loss as he went two innings. Ty Wilmore was effective out of the bullpen as he allowed just one hit over three innings.
Cody Shoemaker went 2-for-5 with three RBIs for the Hawks and Taylor Fought had two hits and two RBIs. Starter Carden Mellown (1-4) got the win as he went eight innings and struck out nine.
GAME TWO: Covenant 11, Huntingdon 10
In game two, it was Covenant that surged ahead in the early innings before needing a Kerr solo homer to break a tie and give the Scots an 11-10 win in the series finale.
After Covenant took the early lead, the teams went back-and-forth through the late innings. Kerr, who hit a grand slam on Friday, finished off his weekend with a solo homer to break a 10-10 tie in the bottom of the eighth. The homer was the fourth of the year for the senior.
Sam Doherty then closed out the game in the ninth as he stranded the tying run at third by getting Huntingdon's Hunter Bower to strikeout swinging. Doherty (1-0) got the win after throwing the final 2.2 innings in relief and collecting three strikeouts.
Covenant scored in every inning except the fourth as the Scots built a 7-2 lead early on. Johnson belted a two-run homer in the first, his third of the year, giving Covenant a 2-1 lead. In the second, Devin Cerrato had a bunt single that brought in a run after a Huntingdon error and Bloye added an RBI ground out for a 4-1 lead.
The Scots added three runs in the third, a balk brought in Kerr before a Hawks error allowed two more Covenant runners to score to make it 7-2.
Huntingdon chipped away at the Covenant deficit with four runs in the fifth and three in the sixth. Covenant had a single run in the fifth, when Nobles scored on a wild pitch, and Kerr delivered an RBI single in the sixth to make it 9-9. Both teams also scored a single run in the seventh to remain tied at 10-10 before Kerr's blast in the eighth.
Bloye went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Kerr finished 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs in the win. Kerr had eight RBIs in the three game series. Murray, Nobles and Hunter also added two hits each as Covenant had 15 hits as a team.
Ryan Smith (1-1) got the loss for Huntingdon as he went three innings in relief. Will Cosby was 3-for-5 at the plate and Garrett Breland was 1-for-4 with a three-run home run for the Hawks.
UP NEXT
Covenant will travel to Rome, Ga., on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup with Berry. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
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