PIQUA – The Covington Lady Buccs defeated a talented Piqua team twice in a double-header by the scores of 11-8 and 6-5 on Saturday to improve to 11-4 on the season.
The Lady Buccs made way too many mistakes in the first game, but were able to overcome their miscues by scoring enough runs to capture a victory.
Emalyn Johnson started the Lady Buccs off with a two-run home run in the first and Covington followed up by scoring four more runs in the top of the second to take a 6-0 lead.
Sophomore pitcher Jayda McClure threw very well, but the defense made three critical miscues that led to two runs for Piqua in the bottom of the second. Still, Covington was able to respond by scoring a run in the third to push its lead to 7-2.
Things went downhill fast for Covington in the bottom of the third as the Lady Buccs committed several mistakes that helped Piqua put five runs across the plate. Many of the mistakes were not errors, but decisions on the field.
After being refocused by coach Dan Cain, the Lady Buccs regrouped in a hurry by scoring three runs in the top of the fifth and another run in the top of the seventh. The defense picked up its standard by allowing just one run over the final three innings.
Jayda McClure picked up the win in the circle and freshman Stevi Johnson threw the final inning to record a save.
Covington tallied 12 hits to overcome the four errors committed by the defense. The Lady Buccs held Piqua to just seven hits in the first game.
The Lady Buccs played error-free in the second game, which led to a 6-5 victory.
Senior Karyanne Turner threw all seven innings and allowed just eight hits throughout the entire game.
Piqua scored a run in the bottom of the first and held a 1-0 lead until the Lady Buccs scored three runs in the top of the fourth. However, the Lady Indians responded with two runs in the bottom half of the fourth to tie the score at 4-4.
Neither team scored in the fifth, but Covington was able to take a 5-3 lead with two runs in the sixth and followed up with a run in the top of the seventh to push its advantage to 6-3.
Piqua battled hard by putting itself in position for a potential comeback win in the bottom of the seventh, but came up one run short as two runners crossed the plate.
Covington outhit Piqua 12 to 8 as a team, which was critical in the success.
The Lady Buccs have another tough opponent on the schedule on Monday as they travel to Versailles.
