COVINGTON, Ga. — In the final game of the Newton Cup Saturday , the Newton Rams exploded for 15 runs en route to a 15-0 win over the Alcovy Tigers.

After feeling like his team “beat ourselves” in game one against Eastside, Newton head coach Delvin Jordan was happy with how his team responded in game three.

“The second game, I felt like the plate approach was better,” Jordan said. I feel like we were more patient in the box. Since we were patient, we got to see a lot of pitches and we got good pitches to hit later in the count and I think we punished some balls. I thought our approach at the plate was much better. The guys played a lot more confident, saw the ball deeper in the zone and it showed.” 

Early on, Alcovy’s Reece Payne had struggles with his command on the mound.

In the bottom of the first frame, the Rams moved ahead on a sacrifice fly from Caden Brown to give Newton a 1-0 lead.

By the end of the second inning, Payne was pulled after allowing four runs. 

The runs against Payne in the second frame came from a two-run single from Kendall Turner and a bases-loaded hit by pitch on Jay Ford.

Replacing Payne was Kris Ross, who inherited a bases loaded jam.

With Ross on the mound, Newton’s plate approach came into play as Newton walked four times with the bases loaded.

As the game went into the third inning, the Rams led 8-0.

In the bottom of the frame, Newton added one more run on an RBI groundout from Turner that scored Ford.

A trio of two-run knocks elevated Newton’s lead to 15-0, in the following inning. 

Those RBI hits were courtesy of Turner, Andre Byrd Jr. and Lucas Ballard.

Newton forced a one-two-three inning in the top of the fifth to win the game via mercy rule.

With all of the scoring from the Rams’ bats, Jordan put extra shine on Josh Brown, who pitched a complete game shutout.

“Josh Brown had three pitches working, he was really effective,” Jordan said. “Showed some emotion — he is still a young guy, but the kid can pitch. He pounded the zone, got ahead and the defense played well behind him. It was really good to see him come out and have some confidence and be effective today.”

Brown struck out six batters while only allowing two hits and two walks through five innings of work.

Following the Newton Cup, the Rams will go on the road to face Athens Christian Wednesday, Feb. 21.