After picking up a big series win a week ago against LaGrange, the Covenant baseball team wanted to get off on the right foot with conference foe, Belhaven. The Scots did just that scoring the first six runs of the game to cling to a 6-4 game-one win.
Final: Covenant 6, Belhaven 4 The first two Belhaven batters of the game were hit by pitches, but the Blazers were unable to get them across home to score. Minutes after making a great play in right field to end another Belhaven scoring threat, Chase McBryar led off the third inning with a home run to left-center field.
A pair of RBI singles in the fourth inning by Daniel Bell and McBryar extended Covenant's lead. Later in the frame, Ben Johnson made it 6-0 with a towering 3-run home run to left-center field. Belhaven got on the board in the sixth inning via a RBI double down the left-field line.
Multiple errors by the Scots' defense in the seventh inning allowed Belhaven to bring across three unearned runs to put the score at 6-4. Covenant had a runner on base in the seventh and eighth innings, but were unable to tack on any more runs.
Belhaven brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning, but an infield pop out ended the game.
Covenant moves to 2-3 all-time against Belhaven. Covenant outhit Belhaven 10-7. The Scots committed three errors while the Blazers had none.
McBryar (3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB) had a strong day at the plate and was a triple away from the cycle. Sam Cecil (2-for-4) also had a multi-hit day for Covenant.
RHP Bryce Bollinger (8 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 5 K, 3 HBP) went eight innings and picked up his sixth win of the year. RHP Jonathan Glover pitched the ninth and yielded just one walk to earn his third save of the season.
Covenant wraps up the series with Belhaven tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at noon.