COVINGTON – Covington lost 17-9 to Greenville, a traditionally strong program, but the way the young Lady Buccs played showed a lot of promise in their development throughout the rest of the season.
Greenville is always a team Covington wants to play because of the stiff challenge the Green Wave puts on the field. Despite the loss, the Lady Buccs showed there is a lot of potential for a great future.
Offensively, the Lady Buccs played extremely well by scoring nine runs on 16 hits, which is an amazing performance against a team like Greenville.
Greenville is always a powerful team as well and it tallied 21 hits and scored 17 runs. What hurt Covington the most was four defensive errors, the only errors committed in the first three games.
What was most impressive for the Lady Buccs was their ability to respond to adverse situations, especially after Greenville put forth some big innings.
This started in the first inning as the Green Wave scored three runs in the top of the first and then Covington responded with five runs in the bottom half of the inning. A run by each team in the second led to a 6-4 lead for the Lady Buccs heading into the fourth.
Greenville broke open with six runs in the top of the fourth and then two more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 12-6 lead, a situation where many teams would pack it in against a team like Greenville.
But the Lady Buccs continued to battle as they scored three more runs over the final three innings. It wasn’t enough for the Lady Buccs to remain unbeaten at 3-0 because Greenville scored two more runs in the sixth and three in the seventh, but the fight by this young Covington team was extremely impressive.
Karyanne Turner, Ava Hartwig and Whitney Burns recorded three hits each, while Kamryn Barnes had two hits. Emalyn Johnson, Jayda McClure, Taylor Foutz, Nell Rogers and Stevi Newhouse all record one hit a piece.
Whitney Burns threw for six innings and Jayda McClure entered the game in the seventh inning. The stats Greenville put up isn’t a detriment for these two sophomores who put in a lot fo time to maximize their potential.
It is obvious that this loss to a very talented Greenville team will not define the season for Covington because the Lady Buccs proved they have the grit and determination to battle through any type of adversity they will face going forward.
The next opportunity to prove themselves is tomorrow in a double-header at Sidney.
