COVINGTON – The Covington Lady Buccs overcame a 4-1 deficit with a nine-run fifth inning that led to a 13-4 victory over Lehman Catholic on Friday.
The biggest optical for Covington was the pitching put forth by Lehman. Just 24 hours earlier the Lady Buccs faced a fast picture against Milton-Union and the Lehman pitcher threw the Lady Buccs off balance with much slower pitching.
Fortunately, the Lady Buccs were able to adjust their swings and eventually broke the game open with some huge hits after falling behind 4-1 after Lehman connected on a three-run home run in the top of the fourth.
The hitting adjustments for Covington started in the bottom of the fourth as Jayda McLure scored Taylor Foutz on a ground ball to short. Emma Ouellette then drove in Kamryn Barnes to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Covington broke the game open with nine runs in the bottom of the fifth, which was started by a an RBI double by Ava Hartwig that score Emalyn Johnson. Taylor Foutz followed with an RBI that drove in Hartwig to give the Lady Buccs a 5-4 lead with one out.
Kamryn Barnes connected on a triple that scored Foutz and then Jayda McClure followed with a sacrifice hit to score Barnes from third.
With two outs, Whitney Burns singled and was replaced by Kylie Palsgrove. Emma Ouellette singled and Stevi Newhouse drew a walk to load the bases. Emalyn Johnson connected on a shot to the outfield that scored Ouellette and Palsgrove to push the lead to 9-4 with two runners still on bases.
Ava Hartwig followed up with a hit that scored Newhouse and then Karyanne Turner connected on a single in the outfield to score Hartwig to give Covington a 12-4 lead at the end of the fifth.
After shutting down Lehman in the top of the sixth the Lady Buccs scored another run in the bottom half of the inning on a run scored by Stevi Newhouse. Covington had its chance to end the game via a run-rule with the bases loaded, but Lehman was able to record the third out of the inning to keep the game alive.
Fortunately the Lady Buccs took care of business in the top fo the seventh by recording three outs thanks to the solid pitching by senior Karyanne Turner, who was the third pitcher for Covington on the night.
Whitney Burns threw the first three innings and was replaced by Jayda McClure in the fourth. McClure threw three innings and picked up the win, while Turner tossed the final inning for the save. Burns recorded two strikeouts and McClure finished with five strikeouts.
Covington racked up 16 hits on the night with freshman Emalyn Johnson leading the way once again with four hits, two RBI and a triple. Kamryn Barnes had a triple and a double, while Ava Hartwig connected on a double as well.
The victory improves Covington’s overall record to 4-1 and 4-0 in the TRC.
Covington has another stiff challenge tomorrow at Russia.
