COVINGTON – The weather conditions were not ideal, but the Covington Lady Buccs were able to make the necessary adjustments to defeat Troy Christian 12-1 in five innings in the season opener on Tuesday.
Both teams struggled early due to extremely high winds. The Lady Buccs were able to make contact on the ball early on, but so many of the balls that bounced off the bat were fly balls that were halted by the wind.
Still, Covington was able to score two runs in the second. Taylor Foutz started things off with a line drive single and she stole two bases and then scored on a wild pitch. The second run came on another wild pitch where courtesy runner Emma Ouellette slid home to give the Lady Buccs a 2-0 lead.
Troy Christian responded with a run in the top of the third and Covington pushed its lead to 3-1 on another wild pitch that was taken advantage of by freshman Ava Hartwig.
After shutting down Troy Christian in the top of the fourth, Covington found its groove at the plate by adjusting the swings. It started with a double by Elizabeth Coblentz and Emma Ouellette took over as a courtesy runner. Whitney Burns followed with a double that scored Ouellette and freshman Stevi Newhouse replaced Burns as a courtesy runner.
Nell Rogers put down a perfect bunt that scored Newhouse and then freshman Emalyn Johnson drilled a home run through the windy conditions to score herself and Rogers to increase the margin to 7-1.
Jayda McClure got things started with a single and Ava Hartwig drove her in with a base hit as well. Karyanne Turner followed with a single to put runners at first and second and Taylor Foutz connected on a sacrifice RBI that scored Hartwig. Kamryn Barnes singled to drive in Karyanne Turner from third and then Emma Ouellette singled to score Kamryn Barnes from third.
Ouellette eventually advanced to third with back-to-back steals and then scored for the second time on a wild pitch to give Covington a 12-1 lead.
The Lady Buccs then closed out the game in the top of the fifth by shutting down three of the final four batters that came to the plate for Troy Christian.
Whitney Burns went the distance in the circle. She struck out seven batters and allowed five hits and three walk. Defensively, the Lady Buccs didn’t commit a single error.
Covington tallied 12 hits with all ten batters connecting on at least one hit. Ava Hartwig and Nell Rogers both went 2-for-2 at the plate, while Emalyn Johnson had a home run and doubles were recorded by Whitney Burns and Elizabeth Coblentz.
Next up for the Lady Buccs (1-0) is a road game on Thursday at Bethel.
