DEGRAFF – The Covington Lady Buccs had a hard time putting runs across the plate for six innings, but were able to capture an 8-5 win over Riverside by scoring all eight runs in the third.

Riverside is 8-10 on the season, but that record doesn’t represent the quality of the Lady Pirates due to level of competition they play in the TRC and in non-conference games. Riverside is a tough opponent, which Covington knew going into the game on Tuesday despite defeating the Lady Pirates 12-0 earlier in the season.

Riverside took a 1-0 lead by scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning, but Covington broke the game open by plating eight runs in the top of the third – three runs being unearned. Ava Hartwig drove in three runs in the inning, while Emalyn Johnson and Emma Ouellette drove in two runs each. Another run was drove in by senior Karyanne Turner.

Over the remainder of the game the Lady Buccs continued to make contact on the ball, but Riverside’s defense prevented more runs to go on the board.

Covington played solid defense as well, but Riverside was able to put four more runs up by scoring one in the bottom of the third and three more in the bottom of the fifth to get itself back into the game.

Fortunately the Lady Buccs were able to shut down Riverside over the final two innings to preserve a hard-faught win.

Covington racked up 11 hits on the evening with four batters recording two hits each; Ava Hartwig, Karyanne Turner, Kamryn Barnes and Stevi Newhouse. Taylor Foutz, Jayda McClure and Emma Ouellette all connected on one hit each. Hartwig had the biggest hit of the game with a triple.

Karyanne Turner threw all seven innings to record the win and struck out five batters against a solid hitting team.

Covington improves its overall record to 15-7 and 10-3 in the TRC.

Next up is a make-up game against Northridge tomorrow at Covington.