The Shadow
The rematch between the Alleghany and Covington baseball teams was nothing like the first, but the results remained the same as the Mountaineers cruised past the Cougars, 12-3.
The first game featured five home runs and took a little over two and a half hours to complete.
Game two, while still taking over two and a half hours to finish, did not have a single home run.
Instead, the Alleghany offense racked up 16 hits to Covington’s five.
“I’m glad to see that we are starting to swing the bats better,” said Alleghany coach Gary Rice.
Dakota Nicely’s 4-for-4, three RBI day paced Alleghany’s 16-hit attack.
Ashby Taylor went 3-for-5 out of the nine-hole and Jacob Vaughan and Cody Nida both added two hits for the Mountaineers.
Five Covington players – Cody Pritt, Michael Myers, Adam Simmons, Aaron Fertig and Shawn Perkins – managed one hit with Myers driving in a pair of runs.
The Mountaineers took the early lead with two runs in the top of the first.
Nida singled to right field and moved around to third after the ball skipped past Covington’s Kyle Greene. Vaughan plated Nida with an RBI single and would score on Taylor Carter’s sacrifice fly to left field to give AHS the early 2-0 lead.
The Mountaineers increased their lead to 5-0 in the top of the fourth.
Jerrod Groves reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on Nicely’s RBI triple. Vaughan followed with an RBI single and Carter blasted an RBI double to the left-center gap.
Alleghany followed that up with three more runs in the top of the fifth.
Seth Bradley reached on an error and Taylor followed with a double to put runners at second and third. Groves followed with an RBI single and stole second.
A wild pitch allowed Taylor to score and moved Groves up to third. Two batters later, Nicely plated Groves with an RBI single to increase Alleghany’s lead to 5-0.
Carter, Alleghany’s starting pitcher, ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the fifth.
He issued a lead-off walk to Derek Harris and Fertig followed with a single. Carter then walked Perkins to load the bags. Matthew Myers plated Harris with a sac fly to left field.
Two batters later, Michael Myers plated both Fertig and Perkins with an RBI single to right-center to make the score 8-3.
The Mountaineers scored two more runs in the sixth when Cody Craft walked, stole second and scored on Bradley’s RBI double. Bradley moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Taylor’s RBI ground-rule double.
Alleghany inflicted further damage with two more runs in the seventh.
Nicely was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning and stole second.
Following two strikeouts by Covington’s reliever Simmons, Craft blasted an RBI triple and Dalton Nicely followed with an RBI single to make the score 12-3.
Carter picked up the win on the mound for the Mountaineers, allowing three runs on three hits over four innings of work. He struck out six, walked three and hit a batter.
Bradley pitched three innings of two-hit ball in relief, striking out three and walking one.
Chad Lipes took the mound loss for the Cougars, allowing five runs on eight hits in four innings. Lipes struck out one, walked three and hit a batter.
“We didn’t make a few plays early in the game and you cannot do that against a quality team like Alleghany,” said Covington coach Mick Strand. “I thought Chad (Lipes) pitched well enough to keep us in the game and Matthew (Myers) did an excellent job out in center field for us.”
It was an error free game for the Mountaineers, unlike the last meeting when they committed eight errors.
“Error free baseball. . . I’ll take that day in and day out,” commented Rice.
Alleghany (4-0-1) will be back in action Wednesday at Bath County.
First pitch is slated for 4:30 p.m.
Covington (4-2) has a week off before returning to action next Monday at Summers County, W.Va.
