Covington second baseman Brennan Forbess expresses his surprise that Munford’s Trey Elliot was safe during action Tuesday night in Munford. Covington shortstop Holden Warmath applied the tag on the play. Photo by David Perry
Covington and Munford’s baseball parking lots were more packed than usual for their annual matchups Monday and Tuesday. The attendance equaled the size of a sub-state game, but the postseason has not begun.
Why? History was being made as the two schools collided in district games, which is a first time both teams are competing in the District 14-AAA, so winning was important.
Munford prevailed over their county rival in both meetings, giving them a perfect start in district play, and did it in dramatic fashion.
They came back from one-run deficits in both games, and did it with grit, grind and a tad bit of luck.
The first game took place in C-town’s territory.
Good pitching was taking place with Covington’s Parker Davis and Munford’s Chase Spears both taking the mounds to see who the better lefty pitcher was.
Davis might have had an upper hand in strikeouts with seven compared to Spears’ six, but Spears was in full control the majority of the game, giving up three hits and allowing no walks.
It was scoreless through the first three innings until Covington played it smart when Paxon Messer bunted with two players on base and Brennan Forbess singled to center field which led to two runs.
While Munford’s defense slipped up that inning, they stayed the course to allow those two runs to be Covington’s last.
They responded with Tyler Smith scoring one run in the fourth and runs by Owen Geiger, Owen Boswell, Garrett McKinney and Ben Cerniglia in the fifth to bring the lead up to 5-2 off errors by Covington.
Munford ran out to the outfield and celebrated on Covington’s field, which they took personally and used it for fuel for the next game.
The second game of the series looked to be on Munford’s side, but Covington did not give up without a fight.
Munford’s bats came out hot, scoring four runs in the first. Covington began to turn the tables, scoring six unanswered runs off errors from Owen Geiger, who pitched, to make the lead 6-5.
With Braden Gover, who struck out five in three innings and allowed two hits, on the mound, it seemed like Covington could’ve taken the lead to split the series but the odds went to Munford.
Chase Spears changed the momentum by hitting a deep ball down to left field, and was able to score off an error for an 8-6 lead. Munford eventually won 10-7.
McKinney came in to clean up and got the win with three strikeouts and three hits in three innings.
