Newberry College 2009 baseball standout Sanchez Gartman came into Sunday night’s game for the Lexington, Va. Rapids against Covington laboring.

He was not seeing the ball very well, and had one hit in 13 at bats.

That all changed with two swings of the bat, as Gartman powered the Rapids with a two-run home run and five RBI’s in their 9-7 victory.

Rockbridge, who was shutout Saturday night at Front Royal, found the offense only one night later.

They opened the scoring in the top of the second when Gartman, who powered eight home runs while in New Market last summer, launched his first home run of the year.

“It was a 2-0 fastball, and I was looking for something to really hammer because I’ve been struggling,” Gartman said.

In the bottom of the second inning, starting pitcher AJ Holland wiggled out of a second and third, no out jam and allowed no runs by striking out two Covington hitters.

The weight room workouts kicked in during the third inning as well, when Kevin Rufus blasted his second home run of the summer, a solo shot over the right center field wall.

That only started the action in the third, as Chris Rasky walked in a run with the bases loaded, and Gartman drove a two run RBI double down the right field line.

“I just had to get my timing down,” Gartman said when asked about his early season struggles.

The Rapids built an eight run lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, but Covington struck back.

The ’Jacks lineup batted around, as they sent ten batters to the plate and scored five runs, taking advantage of three Rapid errors.

Covington cut the lead to one after scoring two more in the bottom of the seventh off of reliever Mac Hunter, but Pitching Coach Evan Wise decided to use Hunter the rest of the game, which certainly paid off.

“All you can do is execute the pitch. He executed them. He is a tremendous competitor,” Wise said.

The Rapids added one more run for some breathing room in the top of the ninth inning, when Gartman added another RBI which came on a bases loaded groundout.

“When [Gartman] is going, he is a special hitter. If we can get him going on [last years New Market] pace, that would be great,” Head Coach Greg Keaton said.

Walker McKinven earned the win in his first appearance of the year, pitching one inning and allowing one unearned run.