LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- Lots of offense, some fog and rain, and more offense.
The Covenant baseball team withstood two weather delays and scored a season-high 25 runs on 26 hits in a 25-17 victory over North Carolina Wesleyan in game one of a USA South series on Friday afternoon.
The two teams waited out two weather delays that totaled over three hours. Game two of the series was scheduled for Friday afternoon, but was not played. The two teams will play just a single game on Saturday at 1 p.m. to conclude the series.
Covenant (15-20, 8-13 USA South) scored in every inning and used a 10-run second inning to open up a 12-5 lead. After N.C. Wesleyan (22-13, 12-8 USA South) rallied to take a 15-14 lead in the fifth inning, but the Scots answered with five more runs to regain the lead for good.
Tyler Moore extended his hitting streak to 15 games after going 4-for-7 with four RBIs and two runs scored. John Mitchell had three doubles in his first three at-bats and finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs and four runs scored, while Hunter Christian went 4-for-6 with a homer, four RBIs and three runs.
The start of the game was delayed by almost 40 minutes due to weather, but the offenses wasted little time. N.C. Wesleyan scored three runs in the top of the first on a three-run homer from Logan Andrews. Covenant answered with two runs in its half of the first on Moore's infield RBI single before Alex Gonzalez delivered an RBI single of his own.
In the second, Covenant scored 10 runs on eight hits to take a 12-5 lead. Mitchell had two RBI doubles in the frame and Lewis Saunders had a two-run double to highlight the inning.
Following a near three-hour rain and fog delay, N.C. Wesleyan rallied to grab a 15-14 lead in the fifth. The Scots scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 19-15 lead as Christian, Tommy Easley, and Mitchell had RBI hits in the stanza.
Covenant added runs in the sixth and seventh and then three more in the eighth. Christian hit his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field, in the eighth inning.
Ross Skipper (1-0) was credited with the win after tossing the final 3.2 innings and allowing one hit and two unearned runs to go with four strikeouts. N.C. Wesleyan reliever Galen Beaver (1-2) got the loss.
Gonzalez was 3-for-5 with an RBI, while Saunders was 3-for-5 with three RBIs and four runs scored. Brooks DuBose and Easley added three hits apiece. Every Covenant starter scored at least one run. Andrew Brock collected his first career hit and scored in the eighth inning.
Andrews went 3-for-4 with four RBIs for the visiting Battling Bishops, who totaled 19 hits on the day.