NEW PARIS – The Covington Buccaneers put together an amazing season and played extremely well in the district final, but fell short on the scoreboard 2-1 against Cincinnati Summit Country Day.

Yes, it was a loss on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t a loss of effort, enthusiasm and playing at a high level. The Buccaneers actually deserved to capture a win considering how impressive they played throughout the game.

Unfortunately, the Silver Nights played just as well and the final outcome of the game was determined by a few plays.

Neither team was able to score until the Buccaneers put a run on the board in the fourth inning. This happened when the Buccaneers had the bases loaded with one out and freshman Hunter McMillion drilled a single in the gap that scored Caiden Hollingsworth. Tyler Palsgrove, who was at the second base sprinted around third base toward home and appeared to be in a great position to put a second run across the plate. Unfortunately, Summit Country Day made a perfect throw to home plate that prevented another run by recording the second out. The third out came on a strikeout to eliminate the Buccaneers from taking advantage of an ideal scoring opportunity.

Summit County Day scored a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the score at 1-1, but the Buccaneers had another scoring opportunity with two runners on bases in the top of the sixth inning. Once again, the opportunity went away as Summit Country Day recorded two huge defensive plays to end the threat.

The Buccs couldn’t score in the top of the seventh and Summit County Day had two runners on base due to a walk and a hit by a pitch with two outs. Both runners stole bases to put them at second and third and the next batter connected on a hit to right field that scored a run that ended the game.

Overall, the Buccaneers outhit the Silver Nights 6 to 5 and didn’t commit a single error on defense while Summit County Day had two errors. Typically, these stats would have led to a victory, but it didn’t happen in this game.

Covington’s pitcher Briaren Denson threw a great game as he went the distance throughout all seven innings in the district final. He threw well enough to capture a win, but the way things went prevented him from earning what he had hoped for. Overall, he threw very well by allowing only five hits throughout the game.

The hits for Covington were tailed by Hunter McMillion, Kian French, Caiden Hollingsworth, Colton Goins, Briaren Denson and Tyler Palsgrove.

The Buccaneers close out their great season with a 14-11 record, the best record in the sport of baseball at Covington since 2013.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
COV	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	0
CSCD	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	5	2