Written by Daniel Ware
Turks Staff Writer
HARRISONBURG, Va.—Behind quality pitching for the second night in a row, the Harrisonburg Turks defeated the Covington Lumberjacks 7-3 at Veterans Memorial Park on Thursday night.
Corey Childress (Troy) got the start on the mound for the Turks tonight and was effective from the jump. The right-hander scattered seven hits across seven innings of work and struck out six with no walks. The lone run he allowed came in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly.
Childress (6-2) has been the Turks’ ace all season—2.87 ERA, 52 strikeouts, 10 walks in eight starts—and tonight was the fifth time he has gone at least seven innings. In three starts against the Lumberjacks, Childress has a 1.23 ERA with 19 strikeouts and just one walk.
The Turks offense got off to a good start against Lumberjacks starter Orsen Josephina (1-1). In the bottom of the first, Trevor Craport (Georgia Tech) hit his third triple in the last four games to score Jonathan Pryor (Wake Forest) all the way from first base to give the Turks a 1-0 lead. During the ensuing at-bat, Mason George (UTSA) singled to right to bring Craport home and extend the Turks lead by a run.
Craport is second in the league with four triples, all of which have come since July 13. He didn’t have a single triple in his first 21 games of the season. Craport is 4-for-16 in his last four games, all four hits are for extra bases and his last three hits have been triples.
Center fielder Ryne Sigmon (UNCG) had his first three-hit game of the season tonight. He went 3-for-4 with singles in the third, sixth and eighth innings with an RBI and a walk.
His RBI came in the Turks’ three-run sixth inning. With the Turks already leading 4-0, Sigmon pulled a single to left field to score catcher Jake Kusz (UNCG) from third. In the next at-bat, Tanner Dofflemyer (JMU), singled up the middle to bring home UNCG teammates Tripp Shelton and Sigmon to put the Turks up 7-0.
Dofflemyer entered the game in the top of the sixth due to an injury Jonathan Pryor suffered while being thrown out at home in the bottom of the fifth.
Patrick Wiseman (Georgia Tech) entered the game in to begin the eighth inning and got the final six outs of the game. He allowed two hits and two earned runs with two walks and two strikeouts in the two innings.
With four games—all on the road—remaining in the regular season, the Turks (25-13) are two games back of the Waynesboro Generals (26-10) in the south division.
Up next, The Turks travel to Front Royal (18-19) for a game Friday night.