COVINGTON – The Covington Lady Buccs advanced to the district final by overcoming mistakes to defeat a gritty Botkins team 10-7.
Covington will face Russia in the district final tomorrow at 5:00pm at Versailles.
The game against Botkins started yesterday with Covington recording three straight outs in the top of the first inning. A storm forced the game to be continued today and the Lady Buccs built a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning due to a home run by Cassidy Iddings.
The Lady Buccs pushed their lead to 4-0 with a home run by Emalyn Johnson in the bottom of the third inning. This home run moved Emalyn’s school records to 17 in a season and 32 in a career.
Unfortunately, the Lady Buccs committed a critical error that led to two runs being scored by Botkins in the top of the fourth inning. Fortunately, Covington was able to regroup by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to push the lead to 6-2.
Botkins was able to load the bases with no outs in the top of the fifth due to another critical error by Covington and then scored a run on a passed ball. After the Lady Buccs captured two outs, Botkins took advantage of another mistake by Covington as all three runners scored to tie the game at 6-6 in the top of the fifth.
Covington wasn’t able to score in the bottom half of the fifth, but fortunately the defense made the plays needed in the top of the sixth to prevent Botkins from taking the lead.
This seemed to ignite the Lady Buccs as they scored a key run early in the bottom of the sixth. After suffering two outs, the Lady Buccs received a huge hit by senior Jayda McClure as she connected on a powerful home run that landed behind the batting cage and pushed the lead to 10-6. This home run is Jayda’s 14th of the season and pushed the team record to 55 home runs.
Botkins was able to score a run in the seventh inning, but Jayda McClure threw out a runner at second and Ava Hartwig made a great catch of a line drive at shortstop. Hartwig then closed out the game with another critical defensive play as she scooped up a hard ball on the ground and threw the runner out at first.
The Lady Buccs are now 23-6 so far this season and will have opportunities to extend the season.
