March 27, 2007 - COVINGTON
The Covington Buccaneers overcame an early 4-0 deficit and a 2-run deficit in the bottom half of the seventh to escape with a 10-10 tie with Anna after the game was called due to darkness.

The two teams will attempt to complete the remainder of the contest later in the season should the schedules allow.

"Offensively we swing the bat well," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch in regards to the season opener. "Defensively, we have to get better. We made way too many mistakes."

Mistakes is what cost the Buccs early as a fielding error with no runs and two outs showing on the scoreboard provided Anna some momentum that led to a four-run inning. Covington ended up committing four costly errors in the contest.

Covington responded in the bottom half of the first to cut the margin in half. Darrell Thobe and Gene Studebaker scored on a sacrifice by Drew Craft to make the score 4-2.

After holding Anna scoreless in the top half of the second, the Buccs erupted for three runs to take a 5-4 lead.

Jordy Burelison led off the bottom half of the second inning with a double and Darrell Thobe reached on a walk. Studebaker then drilled a three-run homer to right-center field to give Covington its first lead of the game.

Brad Plank, the Buccs' starting pitcher continued his mastery over the Rocket hitters by holding Anna scoreless through the fifth inning.

"Brad pitched very well," said Hirsch. "It took him an inning to get into the flow, but after the first inning he pitch four solid innings."

In the meantime, the Buccaneers extended their lead to 8-4 as David Moss double in Kyle Kanet in the fourth and Nate Lavey scored on a Kyle Kanet base hit in the fifth.

The Buccs' fielding issues were on display in the sixth. Anna took advantage by scoring 5 runs in the inning on just one hit.

"We have to have develop the killer instinct to put teams away," Hirsch said.

David Moss entered the game for the Buccs with no outs in the the sixth and stopped the bleeding, but Anna was able to add another run in the seventh to increase its lead to 10-8.

Three outs away from defeat, Covington managed to put runners in scoring position as Nate Lavey walked and Brad Plank singled.

A few moments later, Jordy Burelison drilled a two-out double to score Plank and Lavey and tie the score at 10-10.

"The kids showed some character in coming back from the four-run first inning and then tie the score in the last at bat," Hirsch explained. "Jordy had some big hits tonight and Gene had a nice three-run homer. Still, we have to play better defensively than we did tonight."

Burelison recorded 2 doubles, 2 RBI and 2 runs, while Studebaker connected on a homer and three RBI.

Covington travels to Versailles on Friday.

Scoring by Innings:
Anna ................4......0......0......0......0......5......1 – 10
Covington .......2......3......1......2......0......0......2 - 10