Waynesboro falls to Covington in Game 1

By Cody Clifton Correspondent
Published: August 2, 2008

By Cody Clifton
Correspondent
Waynesboro fought hard, but fell to visiting Covington 4-2, in the first game of the Valley League semifinals.
The Lumberjacks managed to take the first game thanks to a tremendous effort by starting pitcher Turner Phelps.
Phelps pitched the complete game, striking out seven, with the most important statistic being zero walks.
“Andy [Altemus] pitched very well,” Waynesboro coach Lawrence Nesselrodt said. “But comparing no walks [by Phelps] to two leadoff walks [by Altemus], that’s the storyline.”
With the game knotted at zero, Altemus walked leadoff man Lammar Guy to start the fourth inning.
Guy stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before Raphael Turner drove him home with a double to tally the game’s first run.
Derrick Washington’s groundout to second base advanced Turner to third, and an error by Gabriel Saade allowed Turner to reach home.
The Generals got one run back in the bottom half of the fourth when Brandon Sizemore led off with a double. Austin Morgan’s groundout to second sent Sizemore to third.
Evan Webb notched an RBI groundout to score Sizemore thanks to some heads up base running.
The Lumberjacks scored one more in the fifth, once again starting the run on a lead off walk.
“It was a great baseball game,” Nesselrodt stated. “They make a lot of noise on the bases, but we put them on the bases in two innings and that’s at least three of the four runs.”
Junior Arrojo was the recipient of the walk. Rico Noel’s single put Arrojo in scoring position. Guy drove in Arrojo to extend the lead back to two.
The Generals got another run on one more lead off double, this time by Saade who stole third; scoring on Marcus Nidifer’s throwing error into left field.
Phelps pitched a perfect game from that point on, sitting down the minimum nine batters over the final three innings, while striking out two.
The Generals will try to turn those outs into hits today as they travel to Covington in a win or go home game for Waynesboro.