COVINGTON – Monday’s 8-2 win by Covington over Bradford had the largest crowd so far this season at the home field for the Lady Buccs.
It wasn’t just Covington who had so many fans watching the game around the outside of the field as there were closely the same amount of Bradford fans who were present to support the Lady Railroaders. With the longtime rivalry between Covington and Bradford, hopefully the tradition continues in all sports.
Bradford started off the game with a run in the top of the first inning, but fortunately the Lady Buccs responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Ava Hartwig and Jayda McClure started off with big hits and scored the first two runs. Then, with two outs Taylor Foutz connected on her first home run of the season to push Covington’s lead to 3-0.
Throughout the rest of the game the Lady Buccs pretty much shut down Bradford’s offense by making critical defensive plays and not committing a single error throughout the contest. One of the most impressive plays was made by catcher Emalyn Johnson when she threw out a Bradford runner at third base. That was very important as Bradford had runners on second and third with just one out.
Bradford did score one run in the top of the seventh, but was only able to connect on six hits.
Covington scored a run in the second and another run in the third to take a 5-1 lead, but left so many runners on base due to Bradford making great defensive plays as well. Bradford’s defense was impressive as well due to not committing any errors.
The Lady Buccs pushed their lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning due to a home run by Jayda McClure. She now leads the team with 8 home runs at this point of the season.
Covington had two runners on bases with one out in the fifth inning, but Bradford was able to eliminate the scoring opportunities due to key plays made by the defense. Fortunately, the Lady Buccs scored another run in the bottom of the sixth and held on for the 8-2 win.
Whitney Burns pitched very well through three innings to pick up her eighth win of the season and Cassidy Iddings picked up the save by pitching the final four innings. They combined for 10 strikeouts and only allowed three walks.
The Lady Buccs connected on 12 hits throughout the game.
Covington now has a 12-2 overall record and will face Lehman tomorrow at home.
