When the talk is that your staff ace didn’t have his best stuff and it results in a 1-hitter, life is pretty good. Such was the case for Miller Thursday.
And for Covenant, starter Will Moore gave up just four hits and pitched awfully well himself. But baseball is a cruel game, and even more so in pitcher’s duels. So solo home runs from Tanner Morris and Adam Hackenberg wound up being the difference in a game dominated by quality pitching as the Mavericks picked up a 2-0 win over the Eagles, their VIC rival.
“Having a rivalry with Covenant, we’vet always had good tough games and they have such good players — that’s why, win or lose it’s always good to have that fight in you,” said Miller coach Billy Wagner. “This is fun. This is why you play. The reason for playing is to have this type of game.”
Ethan Murray got the start for the Mavericks, and in the first inning, one that best defined his day, he gave up his only hit, issued two walks, dealt with a successful sacrifice bunt and somehow managed to get out unscathed thanks to a pickoff move to first and a strikeout.
“He straight gutted it out and competed because it was not his best day,” Wagner said. “He’s a fighter and he did well.”
Covenant got five more baserunners, all of them on walks, but each and every inning Murray got a play from his defense or simply did the job himself to keep the shutout intact. Miller got off to a great start offensively in response with Tanner Morris leading off the game with a solo homerun to right field.
With Moore and Murray dueling and keeping things quiet, the only other big piece of offense came from Miller’s Adam Hackenberg who hit a solo shot of his own to left field to lead off the third inning and make it 2-0.
“In my first at-bat I see three curve balls so I was going to keep seeing those,” Hackenberg said. “I made the adjustment in the second at bat and got one to hit.”
And that was it. The rest was about Murray, Moore and the relievers. Murray finished with six innings pitched with one hit, eight strikeouts and five walks.
“He kept his head in it,” Hackenberg said. “He kept fighting, kept going after hitters and it worked out for him.”
Moore finished with four innings pitched with four hits, five strikeouts and two walks.
“Will Moore pitched great,” Wagner said. “He kept us off-balanced with his breaking ball. We hit some balls but they were (mostly) right at them.”
Covenant’s Jake Haney came on and threw the last two innings for the Eagles and retired all six batters with three strikeouts along the way. To finish up the win for Miller, Stu Barrett picked up the save after issuing a walk but getting pair of strikeouts and a ground out to Morris on a close play from short to first.
“I told the guys not to be disappointed in the effort,” said Eagles coach Jeff Burton. “This game is such a matter of inches… we didn’t capitalize on a couple of opportunities where we had the right guys up, but we just couldn’t do what we needed to do. But I’m not disappointed in the effort at all. We are disappointed by the outcome though.”
Offensively, neither team had a player with multiple hits. For Miller, Morris and Hackenberg were both 1-for-3. Murray was 1-for-2. Jack Marshall was 1-for-1. Moore picked up the lone hit for Covenant.
Covenant (12-4) hosts North Cross on Friday at 4.30 p.m. The Mavericks (17-4) travel to face the same opponent in North Cross on Monday at 5 p.m.
