Dahley brothers too much for Covington

HAYSI — Covington may have felt like it was playing Clintwood in a game of “Jeopardy” on Tuesday, especially when the Greenwave hit the Cougars with the Dahley doubles.

The Dahley brothers, Dylan, Dalton and Dakota, combined for five hits, including three doubles, and scored four runs to help power Clintwood to a 6-4 win over Covington in the Group A, Division 1 baseball quarterfinals Tuesday evening at John Flannagan Dam field.

The win sends the Greenwave (20-4) to the state semifinals to face Auburn on Friday at 10 a.m. in Salem.

“We started a little slow,” said Dalton Dahley, who drove in Clintwood’s first run of the game in the first inning. “But we made adjustments and everybody hit, and Mikey [Mullins] laid down a good bunt again that was a big play.”

Mullins turned a squeeze bunt into an RBI single that tied the score at 2-2 in the fourth. Austin Turner singled home Brooks with the go-ahead run in the sixth.

Tanner Paxton drove in the first run of the game for Covington with a single in the top of the first and added an RBI single in the fifth, when the Cougars scored two runs to take a 4-2 lead. Luke Crawford drove in two runs, with a sacrifice fly in the third inning and a double down the left field line in the fifth.

The Cougars also missed out on a couple of other scoring opportunities, stranding runners on second and third with two outs in the third and leaving two men on in both the fifth and sixth innings. They had the tying run at the plate after Paxton reached on an infield single with one out in the seventh.

“This was what a state tournament game should be, [Clintwood] just played a little better than we did,” Covington coach Mick Strand said. “They hit well one through nine. They got some big hits and we didn’t.”

Dalton Dahley had two doubles and at least two of the brothers were in the middle of every Greenwave scoring rally, including the three-run sixth, when Clintwood took a 5-4 lead.

“They’ve been the core of our team,” Clintwood coach Jerry Stanley said. “We’ve sort of built our team around them.”

The brothers had lots of help. Eight batters had at least one hit for Clintwood, including Tanner Brooks, whose two-run run double to the left field fence tied the score at 4-4 in the decisive sixth.

For Covington (14-11) it was the first trip to the state playoffs in school history. Strand hopes it was a good learning experience for his young squad.

“I’m proud of the way my team hung in there [against] the best team we’ve played this year,” he added. “Our guys got a taste of it. We’re looking forward to trying to get here again.”

Paxton, who finished the day 3-for-4 at the plate, took the loss. The big right-hander struck out eight, including five in a row early in the game, before giving way to Colton Howard in the sixth.

Covington 101 020 0 — 4 8 0

Clintwood 100 131 x — 6 13 4

Paxton, Howard (6) and Dressler. Turner, Brooks (5) and Estep. W-Brooks. L-Paxton.

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