By Russell Frye

For the Enquirer

The Falkville Blue Devils went on the road to sixth-ranked Covenant Christian for a first-round matchup in the Class 1A baseball state playoffs.

The Blue Devils fell behind early in game one of their series, as Covenant scored three in the bottom of the first to take a 3-0 lead. Falkville would cut the lead to two following a run in the top of the fourth. The Eagles added a run in the bottom of the fifth to once again take a three-run lead.

Falkville scored three runs with RBIs by Wyatt Tomlin, Peyton Sallee and Braden Burnett in the top of the seventh to tie the game at four and force extra innings.

The Blue Devils got a Jacob Holladay home run to lead off the eighth inning to win the game.

Braden Burnett got the start and picked up the victory for Falkville. He went seven innings, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out 12. Andrew Jones picked up the save, as he pitched the eighth inning, allowing no hits while striking out one.

Game two started out in similar fashion to game one, with Falkville falling behind early following Covenant runs in the first and second to take 2-0 lead. The Blue Devils cut into the lead with a run in the bottom of the second.

The Eagles would tack on another run in the top of the fourth to build their lead back to two.

In the bottom of the fourth the Blue Devils exploded for nine runs to take a 10-3 lead. Falkville scored eight consecutive runs following the first out of the inning. Camden Reid, B. Burnett, Caden Burnett, Noah Holmes, Austin Smith and Brock White all had RBIs in the inning.

Falkville added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to secure the 13-5 victory.

Andrew Jones got the start and picked up the victory, as he allowed four runs on five hits while striking out five over 4.3 innings. Jacob Holladay finished off the game out of the bullpen; he pitched the final 2.6 innings, allowing one run on one hit while striking out three.

Falkville will now host Spring Garden in round two of the state playoffs. Spring Garden defeated Lynn 9-0 and 14-1 to win their series.

The best-of-three series will begin with games one and two Friday night with a possible third game Saturday.