The Shadow
The wind was cold, but the bats were hot Monday at Mountaineer Field as the Alleghany Mountaineers opened the season with a 17-7 five-inning win over county rival Covington.
If the game was a homerun derby, the home team still would have won, 4-1, as the Mountaineers belted two long balls each in the first and fourth innings, with both dingers in the fourth inning coming off the bat of 2009 Blue Ridge District Player of the Year Jacob Vaughan.
“It was ugly, but a win is a win,” said Alleghany coach Gary Rice. “Sometimes Monday games are like that. You have the weekend off and you’re just not prepared to play ball.”
The pesky Cougars, who hung tough in the early going, jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first off AHS pitcher, sophomore Kevin Tremblay, who was making his varsity debut.
Shawn Perkins reached on an error and moved to second after Michael Myers was hit by a pitch. Adam Simmons put runners at the corners after reaching on a fielder’s choice and Perkins would score when Preston Waddell reached on an error to put the Cougars on top.
The Mountaineers responded with a six-run bottom of the first off Cougar starter Matthew Myers.
Jerrod Groves drew a walk to lead off the inning and Cody Nida singled to put two on with no outs. Dakota Nicely followed with a three-run home run over the screen in right field to put AHS on top 3-1.
Matthew Myers then walked Jacob Vaughan and Vaughan moved to second on a wild pitch. Taylor Carter followed with a ground-rule double to plate Vaughan and Cody Craft cleared the bases with a two-run shot over the screen in right to give Alleghany a 6-1 lead and chase Matthew Myers from the mound.
Chad Lipes came on in relief of Myers and struck out the first batter he faced before Seth Bradley laced a double off the screen in right. Lipes would get the next two batters to ground out to end the inning.
Covington took advantage of four Alleghany errors in the second inning to knot the score at six all.
Matthew Myers and Zach Humphries both reached on errors to lead off the inning. Lipes followed with an RBI single up the middle to plate Myers. A balk on Tremblay moved runners up to second and third with no outs before he struck out Chris Bowden for the first out of the inning.
Perkins reached on an error to plate Lipes and bring the Cougars to within three, but with one swing of the bat, Michael Myers quickly made things interesting with a three-run bomb to straight-away center field to knot the game at six all.
Rice elected to pull Tremblay for the veteran arm of Taylor Carter.
Carter would strike out two of the three batters he faced to get the Mountaineers out of the inning, but not before the damage was done.
Alleghany regained the lead in the bottom half of the second when Nida drew a lead off walk and moved to third on Nicely’s single to right field.
Nida would score on Vaughan’s RBI fielder’s choice to put AHS on top 7-6.
The Cougars once again clawed their way back.
Matthew Myers coaxed a lead-off walk from Carter and stole second. He moved to third on a passed ball and the throw down sailed into left field, allowing Myers to easily score to knot the score at seven all.
Lipes held the Mountaineers scoreless in the home half of the third to send the game into the fourth inning tied up at seven.
Carter kept the Cougars in check in the top half of the fourth and the Alleghany offense was about to bust loose.
Strand brought on junior Cody Pritt in relief of Lipes in the bottom of the fourth.
Vaughan was the first batter Pritt faced and he lined a fastball over the fence in center to lead off the inning and start an eight-run rally by the home team.
Pritt then walked Carter and Craft followed with a double to put runners and second and third with no outs. Pritt followed with a strikeout, but then gave up a two-RBI single to Bradley to make the score 10-7.
Ashby Taylor followed with a single to put runners at first and second with one out. Both Bradley and Taylor would score on a Cougar throwing error later in the inning to increase Alleghany’s lead to 12-7.
Cody Nida reached on a two-out infield single and Nicely coaxed a two-out walk to bring up Vaughan for the second time in the inning and the senior followed with his second home run of the inning – a three-run blast to right center -to increase Alleghany’s lead to 15-7 after four innings of play.
The Cougars made a little noise in the top of the fifth when Zach Humphries drew a two-out walk and Pritt followed with a single up the middle, but Carter would get Chris Bowden to ground out to end the inning.
Adam Simmons came on to pitch in the top of the fifth and walked the first two batters he faced. Each runner advanced a base after a wild pitch and both would score on a Covington error to give Alleghany a 10-run lead and end the game due to the mercy rule.
“I thought at this point in the season that our bats and defense was pretty good, but obviously tonight we did not make the plays defensively,” said Rice, referring to his team’s eight errors. “But there’s nothing wrong with an ugly win. It’s a win and we’ll take this and move on in the right direction.”
“I’m very happy with the way we played,” said Covington coach Mick Strand. “I was proud of the way we battled back after falling behind 6-1. We just had one bad inning where we kicked some balls around and they took advantage of it, but besides that we played well defensively.”
Carter picked up the win on the mound for the Mountaineers, allowing one run on two hits over three and two-thirds innings of relief.
Pritt was saddled with the mound loss for the Cougars.
Nida, Nicely, Vaughan, Craft and Bradley all had two hits for the Mountaineers with Vaughan driving in five runs on two long balls and Nicely adding three RBI.
Myers led the Cougars at the plate with a 2-for-2, three-RBI day. Lipes and Pritt had the other Covington hits.
Alleghany (1-0) will be back in action Wednesday at home when they play host to Glenvar at 4:30 p.m.
Covington (0-1) has the rest of the week off before hosting Greenbrier West in the home opener on Monday at 5 p.m.
