MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A day after getting the series opener washed out, the Covenant baseball team split a USA South doubleheader with Huntingdon on Saturday at Posey Field in Montgomery. Covenant raced past the host Hawks 10-8 in the opener before falling 13-4 in game two.
The story for Covenant in game one was the work of starting pitcher Garrett Kriston. Kriston struck out 10 batters and broke the program's career record for strikeouts in the process as he has accumulated 231 during his four years as a Scot, eight more than previous record holder Demarius Johnson. Kriston, who entered the week as the Division III leader in strikeouts, also tied a single-season program record as he has recorded 77 punch outs in 62.1 innings.
Covenant backed Kriston's performance with another double-digit run scoring game, the third straight for the Scots. Trenton Nobles went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, while Perry Rigby and Taylor Bloye also had two hits apiece. Caleb Bloye had a hit and three RBIs as Covenant produced 10 runs on 11 hits.
The Scots got on the board early with a run in the first inning on Caleb Bloye's RBI ground out that scored Devin Cerrato. In the third, a Nobles RBI triple followed by a Caleb Bloye sacrifice fly made it 3-0.
The game was broken wide open in the fifth as Covenant scored six runs on four hits to extend the lead to 9-0. Caleb Bloye and Rigby had RBI hits in the inning, while Alex Kerr and Z Arima had sacrifice flies. Rigby later scored on a wild pitch and Nobles drew a bases loaded walk to cap the inning.
Huntingdon would score twice in the fifth, once in the sixth and five more times in the eighth to close the gap to 9-8. The Scots added an insurance run in the ninth on a Cerrato RBI single and Alec Mitchell closed the door on the Hawks in the ninth for the save.
Kriston (7-2) went six innings and gave up just one earned run on two hits with 10 strikeouts. Mitchell came on in relief in the eighth inning and gets his first save of the year in the process.
Huntingdon's Zack Watson (4-4) gets the loss after allowing six earned runs in 4.1 innings of work. Josh Hines went 1-for-3 with three RBIs and Jordan Criswell added two hits in four at-bats for Huntingdon offensively.
GAME TWO: Huntingdon 13, Covenant 4
Huntingdon jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two innings and would cruise from there in picking up a 13-4 victory in game two of the doubleheader.
Luke Harvey and Julien Amorelli had three hits apiece to lead Covenant. Harvey and Amorelli along with Kerr and Donny Lewis had RBIs in the contest.
Huntingdon scored a run in the first and then six in the second, capped by a three-run home run from Anthony Spivey, to gain a 7-0 lead. Covenant would cut that deficit to 8-3 after scoring three runs in the top of the sixth, but Huntingdon extended the lead back out with three runs in its half of the inning.
Zack McGrady (5-3) picks up the win for the Hawks after going six innings and allowing three runs. Jared Gonzalez gets the save as he went the final three innings. Covenant starter Matt Reitz (1-5) gets the loss.