COVINGTON – Coming off of a frustrating loss to Miami East, the Covington Lady Buccs were looking to regain some momentum on Saturday against Troy and Preble Shawnee in the Covington Classic at Covington High School.
Despite a slow start, Covington was able to accomplish what it wanted by coming from behind to defeat Troy 5-4 in eight innings and then run ruling Preble Shawnee 14-0 in five innings. The two victories improves Covington’s record to 22-4 on the season.
In the first game against Troy, the Lady Buccs fell behind 1-0 after one, but rebounded to score two runs in the third and another in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead.
Troy took advantage of a two critical mistakes by the Lady Buccs in the top of the fifth to plate three runs. The first miscue was a dropped fly ball in foul territory and the second mistake was dropped ball at first on what would have been a double play to end the inning. The miscues led to a 4-3 lead for the Trojans.
Covington made another miscue in the bottom half of the inning as Troy converted a double play on a base running mistake.
The scored remained 4-3 in Troy’s favor in the bottom of the seventh and Covington was one pitch away from a defeat, but Meg Rogers drilled a two out double up the middle to keep hope alive. Troy then intentionally walked Nigella Reck and Maggie Anderson came up with a clutch hit to score Rogers from second to send the game into extra innings.
After shutting Troy down in the top of the eighth, Covington kept the momentum rolling as Karyanne Turner led off with a single and then stole second. Troy was able to get an out on a fly ball to right and Kamryn Barnes followed with a single to put runners at the corners. Barnes then stole second to set up a thrilling finish with freshman Taylor Foutz at the plate.
With the count 0-1, Foutz put down a perfectly executed bunt down the first base line that scored Turner from third base for a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.
In the second game against Preble Shawnee, Covington started things off by taking a 3-0 after one and then scored two runs in the third for a 5-0 lead.
The Lady Buccs busted the game open with nine runs in the fourth, which led to a 14-0 run rule victory in five innings.
The biggest hit of the game against the Arrows came on a home run by Maggie Anderson. Erika Gostomsky doubled twice, while Nigella Reck and Mara Newhouse doubled once each. Reck had three hits in the game, while Reaghan Lemp and Erika Gostomsky had two hits. Karyanne Turner and Jayda McClure also connected on base hits for Covington.
The Lady Buccs have one more regular season game left against Riverside, which had to be rescheduled due to weather. The date is yet to be determined.
