VERSAILLES – The Covington Lady Buccs saw their amazing season come to an end on Saturday in the district final due to a 15-7 loss to Fort Loramie at Versailles High School.
Yes, a season-ending loss is tough to swallow, especially for a group of girls who represented the Covington Community with so much heart and determination throughout a season full of adversity. The two seniors, Karyanne Turner and Kamryn Barnes, were amazing leaders of the team and seeing them on the softball field for the final time in a Covington uniform is gut-wrenching for everyone who has been blessed to watch them play over the past four seasons.
Yet, even though the season ended, there is so much pride within the community for this group of young ladies who showcased so much resiliency throughout the year – finishing with an amazing 21-8 record considering the overall youth on the team.
The game started off tight as nether team was able to scoring the first and after Fort Loramie plated three runs in the top of the second, the Lady Buccs responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning on a huge double by Kamryn Barnes and a home run by Jayda McClure.
Things went downhill a little for the Lady Buccs in the top of the third are Fort Loramie put five more runs on the board to take an 8-2 lead. Still, Covington scored a run in the bottom of the third and followed up by shutting down the Lady Redskins in the next two innings.
Unfortunately the Lady Buccs couldn’t score in the fourth and the fifth and then Fort Loramie pushed its lead to 12-3 with four runs in the sixth and then scored three more in the top of the seventh after Covington managed to put one run on the board in the bottom of the sixth.
Trailing 15-4 heading to its final at bat, the was no quit in Covington – a standard that was established earlier in the season against a powerhouse program, Greenville.
The Lady Buccs battled hard by putting three more runs across the plate, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a huge deficit. Still, it showed the determination and resiliency of this young team that made this season so enjoyable to watch.
A huge amount of credit and respect goes to Fort Loramie too as the Lady Redskins had to overcome the difficulty of losing a senior student from the community due to an ATV accident two days ago. Prayers from the Covington community go out to Fort Loramie for this unfortunate situation.
Overall, Covington tallied eight hits with Kamryn Barnes leading the way with three hits, two of them being doubles. Jayda McClure had a home run, while Emalyn Johnson, Karyanne Turner, Emma Ouellette and Elizabeth Coblentz all had hit as well.
Covington closes out the 2024 season with a 21-8 record and the 21 wins moves coach Dan Cain to 216 career wins, which is now the most career wins by any coach in the history of the program.
