There’s one team in particular that hasn’t taken kindly to its seeding — Atlantic Shores. The Seahawks threw the first monkey wrench into the VISAA Division 2 tournament on Tuesday by taking down second-seeded and back-to-back champs Greenbrier Christian. On Friday, Shores shook things up again, topping Covenant 3-1 and taking down the tournament’s No. 3 seed. And so now all that stands between the seventh seed and a state title is the top seed in Miller on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Shepherd Stadium.
“I was told by coaches, friends and umpires that they were shocked to see us as a seventh seed,” said Seahawks coach Phil Kojack. “I told the team, ‘Hey, this is just the cherry on top’ but it wasn’t like we needed more motivation after last year (finishing runner up). We belong in the final again.”
It was a tough day for Covenant’s bats. The Eagles had just five hits and one walk as Atlantic Shores starter Jared Kerchler had himself a game pitching behind his defense and throwing in three strikeouts too.
“We put the ball in Jared’s hands and he’s a senior, a guy you can depend upon when the moment comes,” Kojack said. “ He put the whole team on his back and said ‘I gotcha, I gotcha.’”
Reliever Reid Celata wasn’t much kinder to the Eagles, as he struck outs the side in the seventh innning to wrap up the win.
Covenant’s pitching and defense kept them in the contest. The Eagles picked off a pair of squeezes from third to home and starter Declan Kent and reliever Jake Haney worked out of jams to keep the Seahawks from breaking things open.
“He gave us a great start and maybe not quite as crisp as he was last time out, but that’s a sophomore that just competed his tail off in a big, big game,” said Covenant coach Jeff Burton. “To get out of that jam, that shows a lot. It shows he’s got heart and he’s got talent and he’s only going to get better.”
Kent worked out of a bases loaded jam in the first with no harm done, but Shores plated a runner in the top of the third with an RBI single from Niall Doherty to make it 1-0.
The Eagles answered in the bottom of the fourth with singles from Haney, Will Moore and an RBI groundout from Trent Miller.
The top of the fifth held the bulk of the drama, of course with two lightning delays being the the pivot points. The Seahawks got an RBI double from Jon Sawyers and an RBI single from Celata to make it 3-1. That brought in Haney for Covenant, but no before the pair of delays. Haney worked out of the jam without further damage. He would do the same in the top of the fifth and sixth, stranding a pair of runners in scoring position in the process.
But from the fifth inning on, the Eagles struggled for base runners. A 2-out double from Tyler Mahone in the bottom of the sixth and leadoff single from Blake Scharr was it as far as it got when rallying was concerned.
“The bats were just quiet today,” Burton said. “When we got a couple of guys on it was going to take a base hit that we just couldn’t get.”
Covenant graduates six seniors from this squad, making Saturday’s results a tough pill to swallow. This group has been together for six years and won a ton of games for Burton and the school.
“I told them we’d reflect on the season a bit more when we get together next week but those are six seniors that brought this program back,” Burton said. “Three or four years ago kids weren’t coming to Covenant to play baseball. Certainly we didn’t have this many kids leaving Covenant to play college baseball. They’re a decorated group and if you look back, you aggregate and see that this group has won more games in a Covenant uniform than any other over a three year stretch. The only problem is we didn’t win a championship. It’s not the end of the world and these kids know there’s more to life than that. But we were here and wanted to win. We got beat by a team that played better than we did.”
For Atlantic Shores, eight of the ten hits on the day came from the top four in the order between Sawyers, Celata, Doherty and Austin Stevens.
“They’ve been tough outs all year and credit those top four with what they do off the field — they are the hardest workers in our area,” Kojack said. “It pays off. They put the time in, they get get what they deserve. They show up early, stay late.”
For Covenant, Mahone finished 2-for-2 while Haney, Moore and Schaar were each 1-for-3. On the mound, both Kent and Haney struck out six batters.
