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Thursday, March 30 – With pitchers Jase Barger and Tyler Wade combining for a no-hitter, the Parry McCluer High School baseball team cruised to a 14-0 home win in five innings over Pioneer District rival Covington, while the PM softball team suffered an 11-3 home loss to Covington on Thursday evening.
On the baseball field, the Fighting Blues (4-1 overall, 2-1 district) bounced back from their 5-1 road loss to Narrows on Tuesday. Against Covington (1-4, 0-1), PM scored four runs in the first, five in the third and five in the fourth.
The Blues had nine hits. Leading the way with two hits each were Barger, Brayden Holdren and Maison Hamilton, who had three RBIs.
Barger pitched the first three innings for PM, striking out five and allowing no hits and no walks. In the final two innings, Wade struck out two and surrendered no hits and one walk.
Covington had three errors, while PM had none.
On the softball field, the Blues (1-1 overall and district) were coming off a 27-1 win at Narrows in the season opener on Tuesday. They had a much tougher challenge against Covington (3-2, 1-0). When the teams last met in the Pioneer District finals last May, Covington beat the Blues 7-6 in nine innings.
On Thursday, the Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the first when Tyra Rose stole home. PM answered back with two runs in the second, as Olivia Julian doubled on a fly ball to left field to bring home Autumn Mundy, and Claudia Coleman doubled on a fly ball past second base to drive in Julian.
Covington tied the game 2-2 in the second when Taylor Stayton scored on a sacrifice fly.
In the third, the Cougars took a 3-2 lead when Kayla Bartley doubled on a grounder to left field to bring home rose.
After a scoreless fourth inning, the Cougars got their bats going again in the fifth, racking up five runs. Following a PM error, Bartley scored on a single by Lexi Dressler. Stayton then hit a grounder to left field to drive in Brooklyn Hicks, and Kayleah Jones doubled on a fly ball to left field to bring in Dressler and Stayton. Laken Cantrell then hit a grounder to left field to drive in Jones, extending Covington’s lead to 8-2.
The Blues scored their final run in the ninth when Mundy doubled on a fly ball to center field to bring home Logan Vest.
The Cougars didn’t score in the sixth, but they had the game’s final three runs in the seventh. A groundout brought home Gabby Marshall, and Hicks tripled on a fly ball to left field to drive in Addison Morris and Bartley.
Vest led the Blues with two hits, while Marshall paced Covington with three hits, and Rose, Bartley and Hicks each had two hits for the Cougars.
On the mound for Covington, Bartley pitched a complete game, striking out seven and allowing five hits and one walk.
Pitching a complete game for PM, Claudia Coleman struck out five and surrendered 13 hits and five walks.
The PM baseball team will continue Pioneer District action on Monday at 5 p.m. Highland County, while the softball team will play a nondistrict game at Temple Christian at the same time.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Thursday’s games, please see our April 5 newspaper.
