Covington Wins Championship

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rockbridge (26-25)	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	1	4	9	1
Covington (27-25)	0	1	4	0	0	0	3	2	X	10	8	0
@ Covington | Casey Field

Pitching
Win: Chris Walker (1-0) - Covington
Loss: Tyler Molinaro (0-1) - Rockbridge

Rockbridge Batting
2B: Tyler Hill; Andrew Montague
3B: none
HR: Mike Perez

Covington Batting
2B: Nick Hladek; Ryan Sullivan
3B: none
HR: Matt Shoemaker

full stats

COVINGTON - The Covington Lumberjacks are the 2011 Valley Baseball League champions thanks to a 10-4 victory in game three of the VBL Championship Series Saturday evening.

The Lumberjacks (27-25) captured the championship by defeating the Nos. 4, 2 and 6 seeds in the three-round playoffs.

Covington defeated New Market two games to one in the quarterfinals before sweeping second-seeded Winchester in the semifinals.

In the championship series, the home team held serve in each of the three games with the 'Jacks winning games one and three and Rockbridge (26-25) winning at home on Friday.

Covington controlled game three virtually the entire contest, scoring one run in the second and four more in the third to take a commanding 5-0 lead.

After the Rapids cut the deficit to two runs with one in the sixth and two in the seventh, the Lumberjacks scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to seal the victory.

The 'Jacks scored their 10 runs on just eight hits - Rockbridge actually outhit the victors 9-8 in the final game of the series.

Catcher Nick Hladek had the eventual game-winning RBI on his double down the left field line in the third.

In the seventh, Matt Shoemaker had a three-run HR to left to put the game out of reach.

Chris Walker (1-0) was the winning pitcher. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks in 6.0 innings. 

Walker struck out five before Dallas Nunes took over for the seventh.

Hladek had a 3 for 5, three RBI night for the victors with Shoemaker driving in four runs.

Tyler Hill was 2 for 5 for Rockbridge.