COVINGTON, Ga. — Five shutdown frames from junior right-hander Connor Coursey weren’t enough to carry Alcovy to victory Thursday night.

Hosting Jasper County, the Tigers allowed a pair of runs to cross late and failed to make up ground at the plate as they suffered a 2-0 defeat. With the loss, they fell to 5-9 on the year and stretched their current skid to five games.

Coursey pitched a complete game on 91 pitches, 67 of which were thrown for strikes. After working his way through the first five innings of the game unscathed, he ultimately gave up two runs (one earned) on seven hits and struck out nine without issuing a walk.

“Little man just pitched his tail off,” Alcovy head coach Jimmy Hughes said. “He gave us a shot.”

As strong as Coursey’s outing was, he was outdueled by Jasper County southpaw Cole Hays, who allowed just three hits and fanned eight over seven scoreless frames.

  “Their guy did a heck of a job tonight,” Hughes said. “We need to see pitching like that before we jump into region, so I’m not mad about that. But we could’ve done a better job with our approach for sure.”

Locked in a scoreless tie, the Hurricanes struck first in the sixth inning on a two-out RBI double that was lined into deep right field off the bat of Jackson Taylor. An inning later, Cole Hays added insurance by swinging on the first pitch he saw and roping a single into center field, scoring teammate Baylor Edge from second base to make it 2-0.

Down to their final three outs, Alcovy's batters were retired in order in the seventh inning to seal their fate.

The Tigers will open Region 3-AAAAAA play next week. They’re scheduled to travel to Evans on Tuesday before a home-and-home series against Rockdale County on Thursday and Friday.