COVINGTON — It took awhile, but Southmont’s baseball team picked up a 6-4 non-conference baseball win over Covington Tuesday.
The game, moved from Covington to South due to a wet field, gave the home fans plenty to cheer for, but South was not the most time-efficient in getting the win, which moves the Mounties to 2-0 on the young season after a Monday win over Parke Heritage.
Southmont got three runs in the first, a couple more later and held on for the win.
They had to start a backup pitcher due to an illness, and then a freshman threw the second half of the game in his first varsity appearance to save the win. Those two pitchers combined for a one-hitter.
But there was sure a long trip to that final score.
The number 300 is big in the baseball world.
A .300 hitter is having a great season or career. 300 wins for a pitcher is an automatic Hall of Fame number.
300 pitches in a game is not a good number.
The five pitchers who worked the game for the Trojans and the Mounties combined for 294 pitches in the contest that stretched for three hours and four minutes.
South’s starter, Mason Hall, threw exactly 80 and came out of the game in the middle of a count to allow him to pitch sooner down the road.
Making his second start in two seasons, Hall took the hill because South’s starting pitcher, Brennen Thornburg, was out due to illness. The senior didn’t allow a hit in his three-plus innings of work and struck out nine. He did walk six, got out of jams every inning, and gave up two runs, one earned.
Hall was also the offensive star, with a three-run homer over the center field fence in the first inning, that gave the Mounties the cushion they never gave up.
At the pitch count limit, in came freshman Gunnar Shirk for South, making his first varsity appearance.
The first hitter Shirk faced reached on an error that would have ended the inning. The next hitter walked, and the next guy laced the only hit of the night for the Trojans, a single to left that scored both runners, who had stolen second and third between them.
But the Mounties still had the lead, and Shirk got into a groove.
“Gunnar stepped up,” South coach Bill Woods said. “We had to bring him in the middle of a count, and I told him to relax and have some fun. He is a real competitor, and he made the best of it.”
The freshman then proceeded to strike out seven of his own hitters, didn’t allow another hit, and even struck out the side in the seventh to end the game.
“Coach just said to stay focused,” Shirk said. “Once I got some more pitches thrown, I got into more of a rhythm.”
The combined one-hitter, which saw one Covington ball hit into the outfield all game, was supported by the offense.
“We had some real timely two-strike hits,” Woods said. “We had runners in motion on a couple of those, and that got us the insurance runs. I know (Adam) Cox, (Conner) McKinney had one or two, and (Dylan) Howell had one. That and the Hall home run, really gave us an early confidence boost. Covington is a good team, and this is a good win for us.”
The coach was exactly right on the hitters, as Cox had a two-strike single in the fourth, with two outs, and eventually scored.
McKinney had a two-strike single in the first and, along with Cox who had opened with a single, scored in front of Hall’s homer. In the second, on an 0-2 count, he singled and drove in Cox. That hit was also with two outs in addition to two strikes.
Howell had an RBI single in the fourth, with two strikes, and again, two outs, and again, scoring Cox.
The Southmont offense worked against three Covington pitchers.
Dane Gerling started and picked up the loss. Gerling was the winning pitcher in last season’s nine-inning, 6-5 Trojans win. The senior gave up four runs.
Conlan Moore threw for an inning and allowed one run. Karver Fye threw the last three innings, giving up one more run.
Combined, South had eight hits. The Trojans pitchers combined for three walks and 16 strikeouts. Fye was the offensive leader with two runs scored. Moore had the solo hit and drove in two runs.
“We are still young and we have lots of places to work on and improve,” Woods said of his squad. “The clutch hitting was really good, but we struck out a lot. Errors led to three of their four runs, and we have to get better than 11 walks to 15 strikeouts. Our strikes to balls ratio has got to improve. But, this was still a good win. We wanted to compete with Covington and we got a win. That’s a good night, no matter how long it took.”
Both teams are quickly back in action.
The Trojans will have their home opener Thursday against Benton Central, while the Mounties will play their third in a row on their home field with a Thursday game against North Putnam, 12-1 losers to North Montgomery Tuesday.
SOUTHMONT 6 COVINGTON 4
Score by Innings
South 3 1 0 1 1 0 0 - 6 8 3
Covington 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 - 4 1 2
Hits
South 8 (Cox 2, McKinney 2, Jones 2, Howell, Hall); Cov 1 (Moore).
HR: SM Hall
Runs
South (Cox 3, McKinney, Hall, Jones); Cov (Fye 2, Pearman, Moore).
RBI
South (Hall 3, McKinney, Howell, Fox); Cov (Moore 2).
Pitching
South (Hall W 3.2IP 0H 2R 1ER 6BB 9K 80 pitches; Shirk S 3.1IP 1H 2R 0ER 5BB 7K 78 pitches); Cov (Gerling L 3IP 5H 4R 4ER 0BB 7K 51 pitches, Moore 1IP 2H 1R 1ER 0BB 2K 24 pitches, Fye 3IP 1H 1R 0ER 3BB 6K 64 pitches).
