Covenant College seniors and coaches.
On Senior Day, visiting Huntingdon spoiled the day by taking both games of a doubleheader from the Covenant baseball team. The Scots dropped game one 5-4 before falling 12-5 in the finale.
Between games the nine seniors on the Covenant squad were recognized. Len Kelley, Aaron Cooperman, Spencer Smith, Micah Mabe, Will Carlton, Will Cleland, Scott Gillespie and KC Simons were all honored for their careers. Together, the group has compiled 92 wins with two national tournament appearances and a USA South regular season championship during their tenures.
Gillespie recorded five hits in the day to up his career total to 201.
He becomes the second Covenant player in the modern era to record at least 200 hits joining David Lockwood.
Game 1: Huntingdon 5, Covenant 4
Huntingdon rallied with a three-run seventh inning to erase a 4-2 deficit as the Hawks took game one 5-4 from the Scots.
Mabe started for Covenant and, after giving up two early runs, was brilliant through the middle innings. The lefty retired 14 straight batters at one point before running into trouble in the seventh. Mabe (4-4) gets the loss but went 6.2 innings allowing five runs, four earned on nine hits with five strikeouts in his final home start.
Huntingdon scored the first two runs of the contest in the top of the first, but the Scots answered with a pair in the home half of the inning. Simons led off with a single and Cleland followed with a double before Gillespie hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1. Caleb Bloye followed with an RBI single to score Cleland and tie the game at 2-2.
Covenant scored an unearned run in the second to grab a 3-2 lead. With two outs, Luke Harvey doubled and later scored on a throwing error from Huntingdon shortstop Dakota Beane as he hustled all the way from second and avoided a tag.
The Scots tacked on another in the sixth as consecutive hits from Perry Rigby and Alex Kerr made it 4-2. But in the seventh, Huntingdon took the lead for good with three runs on three hits for a 5-4 advantage.
Trey Worthington (3-1) gets the win in relief for Huntingdon as he tossed four scoreless innings. Starter Jackson Cruce allowed four runs on 10 hits in a no-decision.
Gillespie, Bloye and Carlton each had two hits for the Scots.
Game 2: Huntingdon 12, Covenant 5
There were some memorable highlights for Covenant in game two, but in the end the contest belonged to Huntingdon as the visitors completed a sweep with a 12-5 victory.
Gillespie recorded his 200th career hit with a double to right field in the sixth inning and later scored on a Bloye RBI single. Gillespie also homered, a solo shot to left field in the fourth inning, for his sixth home run of the year and 10th in his career. He would finish 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI.
Cooperman hit a mammoth home run to right-center field in the seventh inning for his first career long ball. The two-run shot got Covenant to within 8-5 before the Hawks pulled away in the final innings.
All seniors got in the game for Covenant, including Mabe who drew a four-pitch walk in the ninth inning. Simons saw his first career action on the mound in the ninth inning. Simons had a hit in five at-bats in the game.
Huntingdon received three-run home runs from Anthony Spivey and Jordan Freeman to build a lead it would not relinquish. Jared Gonzalez (7-2) picks up the win after going seven innings and allowing five earned runs on eight hits.
Smith (1-1) gets the loss after he started and went four innings.
Covenant (14-20, 10-13 USA South) will wrap up its season next weekend at Averett in a three-game series. Game one of the series is on Friday at 3 p.m. in Danville, Va.