The Shadow
The Covington Cougars boys varsity baseball (1-0) season and home opener could not have gone any better as the team used a combined three pitchers to no-hit the Roanoke Catholic Celtics (0-1) on Tuesday evening by the final score 17-1.
The Cougars only needed five innings in the first game of the season to pick up the win after the team posted a 17-run performance.
Ashton Cook (W), Brady Howard, and Luke Conner, pitched a combined five innings, while surrendering one run on no hits and striking out 10 batters faced. Cook, the winning pitcher of the game, pitched three of the five innings and recorded eight strikeouts. The lone run for the Celtics came in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly out.
The offense posted 17 runs on the scoreboard, however, the Cougars bats were held to just five hits (5-for-20). Walks and two big innings helped the Cougars mercy rule the Celtics. The Cougars were walked a total of 11 times in the game. Conner, Howard, and Hayden Rogers (0-for-2), each walked twice.
The Cougars had two big scoring innings. In the bottom first inning the team posted a seven-run inning, including being walked six times. Three of the first four batters were walked to start the inning. The home half of the first inning was jumped started by an Ethan Martin (2-for-4) two-run single that put the Cougars ahead 3-0. The Cougars would score four more runs in the home half of the first inning.
Already ahead 7-0, Martin, in the bottom of the second inning drove in his third RBI of the game to put the Cougars ahead 8-0. Martin, would later come around to score on a wild pitch to give the team a commanding 9-0 lead.
After surrendering a run in the top half of the fourth inning, the Cougars added eight more runs to their already impressive lead by collecting just two hits in the inning. Two errors by the Celtics and five batters walked guided the eight-run innings for the Cougars.
Cook (2-for-4), not only picked up the victory, he also put together a two-hit performance on offense, while scoring a team-high of three runs, also done by Martin. Conner (1-for-2), added two RBI’s in the Cougars win.
Yesterday evening, the Cougars hosted the James Monroe Mavericks at Casey Field.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
RHS 0 0 0 1 0 – – 1 0 4
CHS 7 2 0 8 – – – 17 5 1
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Cougars Batting
Batter AB H RBI R SO W
Rodgers 2 0 0 2 0 2
Howard 1 0 0 0 0 2
Stull 0 0 0 1 0 1
L Dressler 2 0 0 1 0 1
Rogers 0 0 0 1 0 0
Conner 2 1 2 2 0 2
Cook 4 2 0 3 0 0
Martin 4 2 3 3 0 0
Staunton 1 0 0 1 0 1
Davis 0 0 0 1 0 1
Bostic 1 0 1 0 0 0
Williams 1 0 1 1 0 0
Hole 1 0 0 1 0 1
E Dressler 1 0 1 0 0 0
TOTAL 20 5 8 17 0 11
Cougars Pitching
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO
Cook (W) 3 0 0 0 1 8
Howard 1 0 1 1 1 0
Conner 1 0 0 0 0 2
TOTAL 5 0 1 1 2 10
