The Shadow
Sammy Akers kept the Covington Cougars close Wednesday afternoon until their bats came to life.
That came in a decisive fifth inning.
The Cougars batted around in the home fifth, bunching their three hits and scoring five times for a come-from-behind 7-1 Pioneer District win over visiting Narrows at Casey Field.
Covington added two more in the sixth to give Akers a little more breathing room, but the righthander was in command. He retired six straight Green Wave hitters before issuing a two-out walk in the seventh.
With the win, the Cougars moved to 5-3 on the season, 2-1 in Pioneer play.
Akers improved to 3-1 with the complete game win. He fanned nine and only walked two while giving up just three hits. The only run he surrendered was unearned.
“Sammy Akers pitched a very good game,” said Cougar assistant Todd Cook, filling in for head man Kevin Hall. “He was around the plate and threw a lot of strikes. He pitched a great game.”
Narrows nursed a 1-0 lead until the fifth. Jaun Miller walked to open the inning and stole second. He tried to stretch it to third when the pitch eluded the Green Wave catcher, but Jake Robertson quickly pounced on the ball and threw Miller out at third.
The out on the bases didn’t deflate the Cougars. Akers doubled off the glove of diving Narrows shortstop Reid Bowman for the first Covington hit of the afternoon. Skyler Barnett followed by reaching on an error, and Chandler Cook walked to load the bases.
Levi Dressler then hit a sharp grounder to third. Akers scored and Barnett followed him to the plate as the throw from third eluded Robertson.
Simon Gibson’s line single to center plated Cook with the third run of the inning, and Garrett Morgan put a bow on the big inning with a two-run triple up the alley in left-center, scoring Dressler and Gibson and giving the Cougars a 5-1 lead.
With one out in the sixth, Akers reached on an error and Barnett was hit by a pitch. After both runners moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch, Cook delivered a sacrifice fly to center scoring Akers. Barnett then scored on another wild pitch, giving the Cougars a 7-1 lead.
Akers also benefitted from some outstanding defense behind him. Miller made a fine running catch in left-center to rob Robertson for the third out in the sixth. Alex Looney then snared a liner off the bat of Wyatt Freeman for the second out in the seventh. Morgan at second also made a couple of nice plays to back Akers.
Akers, Gibson and Morgan had the only hits of the day for the Cougars, who also took advantage of five Green Wave errors.
“We’ve got to do a better job of capitalizing on hitters’ counts, especially with runners on base,”?Cook said. “We were in a lot of hitters’ counts and took a lot of bad swings.”
The Cougars are back in action Friday when they travel to Patrick Henry.
“That’s going to be a tough one,”?Cook assessed, “but it’s good to see some of that quality type of pitching.”
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Jaun Miller runs the bases in the Cougars’ Tuesday win over Narrows at Casey Field. (Gavin Dressler Photo)
