Trent Suggs celebrates a big play in Munford's 2-1 win over Brighton Monday night. Photo by David Perry
Munford head coach Scotty Yount figured his pitching staff would be solid this year, but three no-hitters in a week?
That’s exactly what the Cougars’ pitching has done after Garrett McKinney threw a no-hitter last night in Munford in a 2-1 District 13-AAA win over rival Brighton.
Things still got interesting late when McKinney walked the first two Brighton batters in the top of the seventh with Munford leading 2-0.
Logan Rushing scored on a Luke Perkins ground ball and Ben Lavelle advanced to third with two outs, but McKinney struck out Carson Funk to end the game.
Brighton (9-9 overall, 3-2 district) starter Kaleb Baskin pitched nearly as well, holding Munford (11-7, 3-0) to three hits, striking out four and walking five over six innings.
McKinney struck out six and walked four.
“Garrett seemed to get stronger as the night went on,” Munford head coach Scotty Yount said. “He made some pitches to get out of some jams late in the game and we made some plays for him early. It was a great team win.”
Dalton Reed no-hit Liberty last Monday and Chase Spears threw a no-hitter last Friday in a win over Millington.
“(Pitching) Coach (Garrett) Perry has done a good job with our pitchers, in our philosophy, which is not rocket science. It all starts on the mound,” Yount said. “There has been more emphasis on keeping the ball over the plate and letting our defense play behind them … because we feel defensively we are very strong and have depth. We have proven that not being at 100 percent healthy to this point in the season. It has been a team effort, guys accepting whatever role they have to fill on any given day.”
Chris Swords singled in Munford’s first run in the bottom of the third inning. Munford went ahead 2-0 in the fifth when Hunter Reed drove in a run with a single.
A Trent Suggs double and a Shane Cox single accounted for Munford’s other two hits.
Brighton and Munford play each other again tonight in Brighton.
In other action:
Covington’s Holden Warmath no-hit the Haywood Tomcats last Tuesday night in District 15-AA action and his teammates did the rest, dropping the visitors 10-0 in five innings. Only five batters reached base for the Tomcats via three walks and two batters hit by a pitch.
Covington (13-7 overall, 5-0 district) scored three in the first on singles by Christopher Godwin, Landon Myers and Parker Davis mixed in with Haywood miscues including a walk, a hit batsman, a balk and an error.
Three walks, a wild pitch and Landon Myers’ second hit of the night plated three more runs in the third inning. Brennan Forbess doubled in the fourth, went to third on a ground out and scored on an error at short. Myers turned the hat trick with his third single in the fourth inning. He move to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Paxton Messer single.
Warmath helped his own cause with a fifth-inning single followed by a Peyton Glore single. Both runners moved up on a wild pickoff attempt by the Haywood pitcher. Reed Chipman got the walk-off with a two-run single.
The Bartlett Panthers took no prisoners on Thursday night, blanking the Chargers 8-0. Covington managed only five hits. Warmath single twice, Messer doubled and Chipman and Forbess singled. No Covington runner got past second base.
The Ripley Tigers did not offer much resistance at Chandler Field on Monday in district action, losing 14-1 in a mercy rule-five inning win for Covington.
Warmath took to the mound and went the full five innings, scattering four hits. He allowed a run, walked two, hit three batsmen and struck out three.
The offense was clicking. Covington had nine hits in the game and were the beneficiaries of nine walks by Tiger pitching plus two errors in the field.
Three Chargers had multiple hits in the game. Cameron Tindall singled and tripled, walked once drove in two runs and scored three. Carson Ruffin singled twice, drove in a pair of runs and scored three. Forbess singled twice and scored two runs.
Steve Holt contributed to this story.
