The Turks rebounded from an early defeat on Monday to take the second game of a doubleheader with the Covington Lumberjacks, with both games ending 5-4. The win secures the second seed in the South Division for the Turks in the Valley Baseball League playoffs.

The Turks put up three runs early in game one with first baseman Jack Cannizzaro, third baseman Brett Wehringer and center fielder Cooper Prince each collecting an RBI. Cannizzaro ranks second on the Turks and third in the league with 30 RBI on the season. 

Covington slowly clawed their way back to a tie, scoring one run in the second, third and fifth innings. Right fielder Chenar Brown scored on a single from third baseman Wilfred Gonzalez in the second and drove in first baseman Thomas Marsala with a triple in the fifth. Brown leads the Lumberjacks this season with 21 RBI.

With the game tied after seven innings, Covington second baseman Kaleb Henry walked the game off with a base hit to left field, scoring Gonzalez in the bottom of the eighth. Henry ranks fourth on the Lumberjacks with 29 hits.

Harrisonburg shortstop Jose Perez opened the scoring in the first inning of game two with a solo home run to left field, his third of the summer. Perez ranks fourth on the Turks with 15 RBI and second in home runs to first baseman Luke Hatcher, who has five.

The Lumberjacks continued their steady pace of scoring with one run in the second, third and fourth innings to tie the game at 3. Marsala, who leads Covington with 44 hits, drove in shortstop Carlos Castillo in the third inning.

Though David Bell had not pitched for the Turks since June 23rd, he entered the game in the fourth inning and worked his longest outing of the summer at 3.1 innings. Bell allowed one run in the seventh inning on three hits while striking out a season-high four batters and sealed the win by holding off the Lumberjacks’ late comeback. 

The Turks will close the regular season with a visit to the Charlottesville TomSox tonight at 7 p.m. Harrisonburg’s playoff run will then begin when they host the Culpeper Cavaliers on Thursday.