The Covenant baseball team finished off Saturday's suspended game with a 15-11 victory, but could not hold a late lead in the USA South series finale losing 5-4 at North Carolina Wesleyan on Monday afternoon at Bauer Field.
Covenant goes to 9-14 on the year and 6-9 inside the USA South. The victory in the resumed game clinched a series win for the Scots, the first since Feb. 13-14 against Methodist. N.C. Wesleyan goes to 7-21 overall and 5-16 in league play.
In the resumed game from Saturday, Alec Mitchell came on in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win for the Scots.
Perry Rigby went 4-for-6 with three runs and three RBIs, while Caleb Bloye finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Jonah Paul (2-3) picked up the win as he went five innings and allowed just two runs on seven hits. Covenant used six pitchers in the contest that started on Saturday, but was suspended in the top of the ninth due to darkness.
In Monday's full game, Covenant got out to a 4-1 lead after two-and-a-half innings, but N.C. Wesleyan rallied and scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to complete the comeback.
Scott Gillespie and Will Cleland had a hit and two RBIs apiece to lead Covenant offensively. Will Carlton and KC Simons recorded the only other hits for the Scots in the defeat.
Gillespie put the Scots ahead 1-0 in the first with a sacrifice fly to right field that plated Simons. N.C. Wesleyan countered with a run of its own in the bottom of the first on Ciro Norzagaray's RBI groundout.
Covenant scored three runs in the third inning on two hits to grab a 4-1 lead. Z Arima and Luke Harvey walked to start the inning and would both come around to score on Cleland's RBI single to right field. Gillespie followed with a run-scoring single bringing home Cleland to make it 4-1.
N.C. Wesleyan chipped away at the lead and made it 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth. Facing reliever Taylor Bloye, the host Battling Bishops scored twice in the inning, capped by Marcus Kornegay's two-out RBI single to center field.
In the ninth, Covenant put runners at the first and third with two outs, but N.C. Wesleyan closer George Moore got Alex Kerr to strikeout ending the threat.
Mitchell made his first start of the year for Covenant and went 5.1 innings allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits. Mitchell struck out two and walked one. Taylor Bloye (1-2) gets the loss after allowing the go-ahead run in the eighth.
TJ Wilkie (1-0) is credited with the win in relief for N.C. Wesleyan as he pitched four perfect innings and had five strikeouts. Moore notches his first save of the year with a scoreless ninth.
Covenant will be back at it on Tuesday when it travels to Rome, Ga., to face Berry in non-conference action. Game time is set for 6 p.m. and William R. Bowdoin Field. Berry defeated the Scots 11-10 on March 17.