COVINGTON – The Covington Lady Buccs overcame several adverse situations by making huge plays at critical times in a thrilling 7-6 win over New Bremen on Friday.

This young group of kids have faced so much adversity this season and the loss of sophomore pitcher Whitney Burns due to an injury last night against Bethel put the Lady Buccs into a situation where they had to prove themselves once again as a good team.

And Covington did just that by showing grit and determination throughout the game where New Bremen put the Lady Buccs into some very tough situations.

The most difficult situation came in the top of the seventh when New Bremen came to the plate trailing 6-5. The Cardinals tied the game with a run and had the bases loaded with one out. The next batter hit hard ground ball to Covington shortstop Ava Hartwig, who was ran into by a New Bremen runner as she threw out a runner at home plate. The umpires gathered together and made the correct call – the runner who ran into Hartwig was called out and the rest of the runners had to return to the bases, which left the bases loaded with two outs.

New Bremen’s next batter drilled a line drive shot to right-center and Covington freshman Emalyn Johnson made an amazing play by diving for the ball to record the third out and prevent several runs from crossing the plate to put the Cardinals into a comfortable lead.

With the game tied 6-6 with Covington at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, Emalyn Johnson drilled a base hit ups the middle with one out. She then stole second to put herself into scoring position, but a pop-up by Covington followed for the second out. Johnson then stole third and the ball thrown by New Bremen bounced into the outfield, which Johnson took advantage of by sliding across home plate for the winning run.

Covington started off strong by scoring a run in the first and holding New Bremen scoreless throughout the first two innings. The Cardinals took advantage of a Covington error in the third to plate two runs for a 2-1 lead, but the Lady Buccs responded with three runs in the bottom of the third to go ahead 4-2.

Once again New Bremen was able to tie the score with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth, which was the result of two more errors by Covington. The Lady Buccs followed by scoring two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to reclaim the lead, 6-4.

Another error by the Lady Buccs resulted into one run for New Bremen in the sixth and Covington failed to score in the bottom of the sixth, which led to a thrilling final inning.

Overall, Covington had eight hits and four errors, while New Bremen had 11 hits and four errors. New Bremen left 13 runners stranded, while Covington left just four runner stranded.

Jayda McClure threw the first five innings for Covington and Karryanne Turner tossed the final two innings. Turner picked up the win.

Kamryn Barnes had a huge day bygone 2-for-3 with 3 RBI, while Ava Hartwig went 2-for-3 and scored three runs. Emalyn Johnson, Stevi Newhouse, Karyanne Turner and Taylor Foutz also recoded one hit a piece.

Covington improves its record to 9-4 on the season and will play on the road against a very good Piqua team tomorrow in a double-header.