BELLBROOK – The Covington Lady Buccs recorded a dominating 25-1 victory over Felicity-Franklin on Thursday to capture the 12th district championship in the history of the program.
Felicity-Franklin, #5 seed, entered the game in high energy as that team recorded three straight run-rule victories over #1 seed Lockland, #2 seed Middletown Christian and #3 seed New Miami to reach the district final. Covington, a #3 seed on its side of the bracket, reached the district finals with victories over Springfield Central Catholic and Fort Loramie.
The Lady Buccs started off by scoring three runs in the first inning, but didn’t show overall focus in the bottom half of the inning as they allowed Felicity-Franklin to score a run due to a miscues that were not recorded as errors.
Fortunately, during the bottom of the first, Covington’s coach Brooke Gostomsky-Menker called a timeout and entered the field to get her players refocused. From that point on the Lady Buccs put forth a dominating performance.
Covington scored five runs in the second, seven in the third, eight in the fourth and two more in the fifth to pull the game away.
It was all due to outstanding hitting and aggressiveness in base running. The one situation that showed the aggressiveness in base running was by Emma Ouellette as she connected on a double and continued to run all the way home after a throw from the outfield that rolled to the fence by the Felicity-Franklin dugout.
The Lady Buccs racked up 23 hits throughout the game as 12 of the 14 players on the team recorded at least one hit.
Jayda McClure went 4-for-5 with a home run, two triples, a double and four RBIs, while Emalyn Johnson went 3-for-3 with a home run, a double, three RBIs and drew two walks. Plus, Elizabeth Coblentz went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs as well and Whitney Burns connected on three hits with one being a triple and another being a double.
Whitney Burns pitched throughout the game and only allowed three hits, She struck out seven batters and walked four.
The win advanced Covington’s record to 19-9 and will face either Russia or Ansonia on Wednesday, May 28th.
