LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- Covenant baseball battled valiantly with the No. 11/17 Belhaven Blazers at the Covenant Baseball Field, but came up short twice, losing 7-4 and 3-2 on Friday afternoon.

GAME ONE: No. 11/17 Belhaven 7, Covenant 4

A one-run lead was short-lived as the Scots pitching staff could not hold off the formidable Blazer lineup in the latter stages, falling 7-4 in game one.

Cole Akins and Drew Avant collected two hits each, with Avant driving in two runs. James Lee (1-3) struck out a career-high 10 batters in his six innings of work.

After going down 2-0 in the third, the Scots responded in the fourth with a three-run rally, as a wild pitch brought in Daniel Counts and Avant singled in a pair of runs to put Covenant up 3-2.

Belhaven answered back with five unanswered runs between the fifth and eighth frames, though, putting the Blazers up 7-3. Counts would single home a run in the ninth to trim it down to 7-4 and bring the tying run to the plate, but a strikeout would end the rally there. 

Blake McCarthy had two hits and two RBIs to pace the Blazers' offense, while Gunner Staten (4-1) got the win behind six solid innings. John Wade (SV, 6) got the one-out save.

GAME TWO: No. 11/17 Belhaven 3, Covenant 2

The Scots got eight stellar frames from Adkin Finch, helped by multiple incredible defensive plays, but could not pick him up offensively as the Blazer pitching staff struck out 13 to hold on for a 3-2 win.

Finch (3-3) struck out three in his career-high eight innings, allowing just four hits and three earned runs on 102 pitches, while Roby McClarnon had a two-hit day at the top of the lineup for Covenant.

Belhaven appeared to be on track for a productive offensive day after the first inning, scoring two runs, but Finch bore down, battling through that inning to keep it there. Elliott Eastin scored the first run for the Scots in the second on a wild pitch, making it 2-1 Blazers after two.

Each team would add a run in the third, with a wild pitch scoring one for Belhaven and Matthew Ianniello scoring on a double play ball to make it 3-2 going into the fourth.

From there, it was all pitching, as Finch allowed one hit the rest of his start, including retiring the final 12 men he faced consecutively. 

Covenant had one final chance to tie or take the lead in the eighth, as Ianniello drew a leadoff bean ball and advanced to third after a stolen base and wild pitch to put the tying run 90 feet away with nobody out.

However, Cole Burton (4-1) preserved his win bu striking out two men in a row, and then Sage Rivere induced a fly out to retire the side unscathed.

John Wade (SV, 7) struck out the side in the ninth to earn his second save of the day, while Austin Canale had the lone RBI for the Blazers.

UP NEXT

The final game of the series is tomorrow at 1 p.m.

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.