COVINGTON – The Covington Lady Buccs tied the school record with 48 home runs in the season and Emalyn Johnson broke the individual school record with 16 home runs in the season, which made Saturday memorable despite splitting the two games against Urbana and Beavercreek in the Covington Classic.
Covington opened up the day with an unfortunate 12-3 loss to Urbana, but regrouped in the second game by defeating Beavercreek 7-3.
What hurt the Lady Buccs in them first game was the mistakes made defensively and Urbana was able to take advantage of every opportunity. Plus, Urbana is a powerful hitting team as the Hillclimbers connected on four home runs throughout the game.
The Lady Buccs fell behind 12-0 after the Hillclimbers scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning. That situation could have been eliminated if Covington didn’t commit the error that would have led to the third out to keep the inning scoreless.
Still, Covington showcased its desire by responding with three runs in the bottom of the sixth as Ava Hartwig hit an important home run. Unfortunately, the deficit was too much to overcome late in the game.
After a lunch break, Covington put together a much better game against a very good Beavercreek team who is a Division I program.
The Lady Buccs started the game off with a 2-0 lead in the first inning due to a critical hit by Taylor Foutz that drove in two runners.
With the score still 2-0 heading into the top of the third inning the Beavers loaded the bases with no outs that put the Lady Buccs into a tough situation. Fortunately, Ava Hartwig made a very impressive double play and then Jayda McClure threw out a runner at first to limit Beavercreek from scoring in the inning.
This ignited the Lady Buccs as they followed up by scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning. The biggest hit was connected by Emblem Johnson as she connected on her 16th home run in the season to break the school record that was previously set by Nigella Reck last year.
Beavercreek scored a run in the top of the fourth and then two more runs in the top of the sixth to close Covington’s lead to 5-3. The Lady Buccs responded well by scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a triple by freshman Kayleigh Deeter, but two more potential runs were pulled away by Beavercreek as they tagged out two Covington runners at the home plate.
Once again, Beavercreek loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh inning. Once again, Covington recorded a double play as pitcher Whitney Burns scooped up a ground ball and threw it to catcher Emalyn Johnson. Johnson then tossed the ball to Taylor Foutz at first base for the important double play.
The game ended on the next play as Ava Hartwig drew a ground ball and threw out the runner at first.
The Lady Buccs now have a 19-5 record at this point of the season and will start the post-season tournament at home on Monday against Springfield Central Catholic.
