Andy advances to area tournament

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 3, 2002

OPP -- Andalusia outscored Covington County 7-0 in the 13-year-old Babe Ruth District Tournament late Tuesday night to earn a ticket to the area tournament scheduled to begin in Atmore on July 11. Andalusia will play at 5:30 p.m. on July 11.

Andalusia turned a scoreless game in their favor in the third inning of the game against Covington County when Kevin Peek led-off the inning with a strikeout only to reach on an error. Mackenzie Curry then reached on a fielders choice to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Michael Berry strode to the plate and got Andalusia's first hit of the game with an RBI-single to plate Peek for a 1-0 lead.

Andalusia starting pitcher Matt Mellown followed Berry in the order and helped his cause with a fielders choice that plated Mackenzie for a 2-0 lead.

Berry and Mellown also scored in the inning before Covington County could retire the side. Jordan Maynor had an RBI in the inning.

When the dust settled, Andalusia held a 4-0 advantage going into the top of the fourth inning.

Covington County's Josh Douglas reached on a two-out walk in the fourth and moved to second when Clark Sanders was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with two outs. Mellown got out of the jam with a groundout to the first baseman.

Andalusia tacked on one more run in the fourth inning to extend their lead to 5-0.

Kevin Peek reached on an one-out walk, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI-single by Mackenzie Curry.

The Covington County batters were retired in order in the top of the fifth and Andalusia added another run to their lead in the bottom of the inning.

Zack Jones was first to bat and reached on an error when he struck out and the ball bounced away from the catcher. He moved to second on an error and scored later in the inning on a two-out, RBI-single by Charles Gunter.

Covington County's line-up struck for their first hit of the game in the top of the sixth when Rhett Dewrell reached on a two-out single. Dewrell was stranded, however, when the next batter flied out to center field.

In the bottom of the sixth, Andalusia earned another insurance run when Mackenzie Curry scored his second run of the game after leading off the bottom of the inning with a stand-up triple. He scored when Michael Berry followed him in the order and grounded out to short.

Covington County got

their second hit of the game in the top of the seventh inning, but failed to score as Andalusia held on for the win.

Matt Mellown started on the mound for Andalusia and went the distance pitching a two-hit shutout. He struck out six in the game.