BEREA, Ky. -- Following a loss to Brevard on April 2, the Covenant baseball team stood at 10-15 overall and 2-7 in USA South action. Fast forward four weeks and the Scots turned their season around and are headed to the USA South Tournament as the No. 3 West seed.

Covenant won its seventh straight game and completed a three-game sweep of Berea with a 12-4 victory on the road on Saturday to conclude the regular season.

The win was the 11th in the last 13 games for Covenant (21-17, 10-8 USA South) as the Scots went 8-1 in the final nine USA South games to climb into the tournament and finish third in the West Division. The Scots will head to the No. 1 West seed for a four-team, double-elimination bracket starting on Thursday, May 5. 

To ensure no tiebreaker was needed to get into the tournament, the Scots had to finish off a sweep of Berea on Saturday.

Josh Harvey and Kenny Mills had three hits apiece, with Mills driving in three, and Covenant jumped out early and never relinquished the lead in the eight-run victory on Saturday. The Scots scored 45 runs over the three-game sweep.

The Scots scored three runs in the second inning, highlighted by RBI hits from Mills and Harvey, and then added two more runs in the third to grab a 6-1 lead. George Manera had an RBI double in the third and Mills added another RBI single to cap the frame.

Covenant put the game out of reach in the sixth with three runs. Mills was in the middle of it again with an RBI double that plated Manera, while Harvey also doubled home a run in the inning before Zeke Gilbert scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-1.

Chase McBryar and Garrett Hauenstein added run-scoring hits in the eighth to make it 12-1. The hit for Hauenstein, a two-run double, was the first of his career.

Five Covenant pitchers combined to strike out 14 Berea hitters, one off the single-game program record of 15 the Scots set on Friday. Judah O'Neal went the first four innings allowing one run with six strikeouts, while Mills (1-2) notched the win after tossing two scoreless innings. Aaron Northcutt struck out three in his one inning and Conor Austin added two punchouts in the eighth.

McBryar had two hits off the bench as the Scots tallied 13 hits in the game. 

The 21 wins are the most for the Scots in a season since 2016 and the seventh time the program has achieved a 20-win season.

UP NEXT

Covenant will face the No. 2 East seed in the USA South Tournament on Thursday, May 5 at the No. 1 West seed's venue. The Scots will face either Methodist or N.C. Wesleyan (depending on that series outcome this weekend) at either LaGrange or Huntingdon (depending on that series outcome this weekend). The USA South Tournament is split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets hosted by the division winners. Bracket play runs from May 5-7, with the two bracket winners facing each other in a best-of-3 series beginning on May 13.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTS

Be sure to follow the Scots all season long on athletics.covenant.edu and on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news and other information.