Aug 14, 2017 3 min read

What do you get when you mix power, speed and plate discipline?

You get a powerful team like Covina, Calif., and a possible Pony League World Series champion.

Covina, the West Zone champion, put on quite a show Monday night, downing Bay County, Mich., 9-5, at Lew Hays Pony Field.

Covina pounded out 10 hits and scored in all but two innings.

“We have a good hitting team and (Bay County) has a great hitting team,” said Covina manager Richard Graciano. “I thought it was going to be close.”

The win moves Covina to the division final and a game at 8 p.m. today. The opponent could be Bay County, but the Michigan team would have to defeat Brownsville, Texas, in a 12:30 p.m. elimination game.

Covina seemingly put the game away with a four-run fifth inning that stretched its lead to 8-2.

“That was huge for us,” Graciano said. “We like to keep momentum. We like to keep it uptempo and we don’t like the other team to have the uptempo.”

But Bay County came roaring back in the bottom of the fifth by scoring three runs and cutting the Covina lead to 8-5. The big hit was a two-run homer by Logan Hugo. Bay County scored the third run of the inning with help of two Covina errors.

“We made too many mistakes,” said Bay County manager Dan Revette. “We had too many pitches hit the zone where we didn’t want them and they hit it. We just need to get our heads back in it and come back (Tuesday).”

Covina struck in each of the first three innings to take a 4-0 lead. Luke Willison made it 1-0 when he sent a pitch over the right-field fence for a solo home run. Jake Vargas matched it in the second inning, sending his solo home run over the left-centerfield fence to make it 2-0. He finished the day 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Covina stretched it to 3-0 in the same inning, when Willison scored from third on a wild pitch after a strikeout.

Bay County rallied in the third, scoring twice. Brenden Bonnell drove in the first with a double that scored Eric Randall, who singled. Bonnell came around to score on an error.

Blake Waibel started for Bay County and allowed four earned runs in three innings.

Hugo, Bonnell and Carter Sonntag each had two hits for Bay County.