VEEDERSBURG – Fountain Central’s baseball team finished one of the sweetest weeks in recent memory by completing a sweep of WRC-leading Covington.
It was 8-7 at home Wednesday, following the 4-3 win at Covington Monday.
The win moves FC to 5-11 on the season and 5-5 in the league, while the Trojans, who had been receiving votes in the `1A poll, fall to 7-6-1 overall and see their WRC mark fall to 4-2.
The rivalry matchup, featuring the chippiness and trash talking one expects in baseball and rivalries, didn’t disappoint any Mustangs fans, as their squad took advantage of 11 Covington errors to get enough runs to win.
“We came ready to play,” said FC coach Adam Acton. “We have been getting better and better as the season has gone along, and tonight we hit well, pitched well and fielded well. I’m really proud of this team this week.”
Trojans coach Scott Holyrcoss just stared at the game chart for a moment.
“We had four errors all season coming into this week,” he said. “We had six errors and gave Fountain Central all four runs (in the loss) Monday and tonight we have 11. It’s like quicksand. One leads to another and it just gets deeper and deeper. We are a better team than that. We are a senior-led team and we pride ourselves in leadership by example. I think the rivalry and wanting to get back from Monday got guys too hyped up – some guys tried to be heroes or cool guys and that’s not how we play. We forgot that we pride ourselves on fundamentals and the basics of baseball.”
The game was back and forth for all seven innings.
The Trojans struck first with an unearned run in the first and they added two in the second.
The Mustangs cashed in on six Covington errors in the third to take a 5-3 lead.
The Trojans got a couple in the fourth to square the score at 5.
But FC used three more visitor errors in the bottom of the fourth to get three across and grab the lead for good.
Covington got two in the fifth to make it an 8-7 affair, with both starting pitchers running out of throws.
Luke Foxworthy was the starter for the Mustangs, and ran out of pitches first.
The senior exited after five, allowing the seven Covington runs on seven hits. He walked five and struck out five. He picks up the win.
Fellow senior Lukas Miller came in to pitch and earned the save, allowing two hits in the sixth but getting two strikeouts, and in the seventh putting the three hottest hitters in the Trojan lineup down in order.
“Foxworthy had a really good outing,” Acton said, “and we asked Miller if he could shut the door in the last two innings after throwing earlier in the week. He said he could and did,”
Senior Karver Fye threw the full six innings for the Trojans. He scattered 10 FC hits around, walked two and struck out five, but only three of the eight runs charged to him were earned.
“Fountain Central has had our number over the years,” Holycross said. “They have been bad voodoo for us. We gave them all the runs Monday and almost all of them tonight. Give them credit – they put the ball in play and didn’t get rattled.”
The Trojans also had a key injury in the second inning when left fielder Conlan Moore had a fingernail nearly ripped off and a tear in a finger while fielding a fly ball.
“Moore is our leading hitter and our leading RBI guy,” Holycross said. “When he went out, it threw a shadow over out dugout.”
The offensive leaders for FC were Owen Acton with a pair of hits, including possibly his first career triple, and two runs scored. Foxworthy helped himself with his own pair of hits and runs. Nolan Acton had two hits and run. Millere had a pair of RBI.
The hot bat for Covington was their #9 hitter Gage Pearman. The senior reached three times he came to the plate, including two hits. Cian Moore had two hits and scored once. Courtesy runner for Pearman, Nash Martin scored three of the Trojans seven runs.
The Trojans are back in action Monday when they travel to Seeger for a big WRC game.
“We can still win the conference,” Holycross said. “Baseball is a mental game. Don’t dwell on what happened.”
The Mustangs have a home game Friday with Lebanon – Coach Acton’s alma mater. They have Attica next week in conference action.
“We battled them close last year,” the coach noted. “We’ll get after them tomorrow.”
