ROME, Ga. -- It was a wild day for the Covenant baseball team to say the least. Tuesday's game vs. Berry was supposed to be a home game but due to extensive fog on Lookout Mountain, the contest was moved to Berry's campus in Rome.
When the teams did finally play Tuesday night, it was one of the wildest games of the season for either team.
Covenant erased a 9-1 deficit in the sixth inning by scoring 13 runs, three in the sixth and 10 in the seventh, to take a 14-9 lead but Berry rallied and took a 16-15 victory in 13 innings at William R. Bowdoin Field.
The 13 inning affair is tied for the longest, in terms of innings played, in Covenant program history. The Scots also played 13 innings on April 26, 2010 against Tennessee Wesleyan, a 9-8 victory. Covenant also set a program mark with 22 hits as a team.
Scott Gillespie and Z Arima each went 4-for-6 at the plate, while Gillespie and David Lockwood had three RBIs apiece. Gillespie launched his first home run of the season, a solo shot in the second inning. Will Cleland finished 3-for-8 with two RBIs and Chris Rollins was 3-for-6 with a pair of runs driven in as well.
Covenant fell behind 9-1 after five innings of play, but responded with three runs in the sixth and 10 more in the seventh to gain a 14-9 edge. Gillespie, Will Carlton and Paul Phillips had RBI singles in the sixth to make it 9-4.
In the seventh, 14 batters came to the plate as the Scots scored 10 times on nine hits to take a 14-9 lead. Lockwood collected two RBI hits in the frame, accounting for three runs. Nine of the runs came with two outs as Arima, Rollins, Cleland and Gillespie all had RBI hits with two away. Phillips and KC Simons added RBIs on hit-by-pitches.
Berry would rally and tie the score at 15 with four runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Both teams were held at bay in the extra frames until the 13th. Alex McGill led off with a double and would score the winning run on a Ben Jernigan sacrifice bunt that led to a Covenant error.
McGill finished 5-for-7 with two runs and three RBIs for the Vikings (15-5). Will Heard and Doug Heath both added three hits apiece for the home team. Berry reliever Danny Parry (2-0) gets the win as he threw 5.2 innings of scoreless ball allowing just two hits with five strikeouts.
Taylor Bloye (0-1) picks up the loss in relief for Covenant. Bloye pitched 2.1 innings and allowed one run on two hits. The Scots used seven different pitchers on the night, while Berry used six.
Covenant (9-6) will get back to USA South action this weekend with a three-game series at Greensboro. Game one of the series is Friday night at 7 p.m.