TROY – Covington defeated Troy Christian – the defending Three Rivers Conference Champions – 11-6 in what was an exciting afternoon for the Buccaneers.
The Buccs played with high energy and jumped on Troy Christian early by scoring six runs. Two Buccs were hit by pitches and a single by Jacob Tipps loaded the bases. Carter Owens then walked to score Tanner Palsgrove to make the score 1-0. Connor Humphrey singled to center to score Trey Schmelzer and then Grant Blore doubled to left to score Tipps and Owens to push the lead to 4-0. Humphrey scored on a sacrifice by Michael Hagan and then Carson Taylor singled to score Blore for a 6-0 lead.
Covington pushed its lead to 7-0 in the second on a sacrifice fly by Trey Schmelzer that scored Tanner Palsgrove.
Troy Christian battled back to cut Covington’s advantage to 7-5 with three runs in the third and two more in the fifth, but the Buccaneers took advantage of an Eagle miscue in the sixth when Michael Hagan stole third and scored on an overthrow.
After holding the Eagles scoreless in the bottom of the sixth, the Buccaneers gave themselves breathing room with three runs in the top of the seventh.
Tanner Palsgrove led off with a triple and Jacob Tipps scored Palsgrove on a sacrifice fly. Grant Blore then singled to score Carter Owens and Connor Humphrey to push the Buccaneer lead to 11-5.
Troy Christian managed to score a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Covington made the plays needed to improve its record to 2-0 on the young season.
Defensively, Covington made some huge plays throughout the game. Sophomore hurler Tyler Jay recorded three straight outs with two guys on to keep the lead at 7-3 in the fourth. Carson Taylor entered in the fifth in relief of Tyler Jay and threw one pitch to get out of another jam. Carter Owens made a diving catch in center in the sixth and Jacob Tipps made a diving catch in foul territory in the seventh.
Tyler Jay picked up the win on the hill as he went four and two-third innings. Carson Taylor went one-third of an inning and Grant Blore closed the show by going one and two-third innings.
The Buccs recorded 11 hits with Tanner Palsgrove, Carter Owens, Connore Humphrey and Grant Blore all recording two hits each. Blore had a monster game by driving in four runs.
Also recording hits for the Buccs were Trey Schmelzer, Michael Hagan and Carson Taylor.
The Buccs travel to Northridge tomorrow (Tuesday).