The Covington Buccaneers' tournament life ended to Lehman for the second straight season with a 7-2 loss.

May 9, 2007 – COVINGTON
Covington coach Mitch Hirsch has talked all season about how his team needed to develop a killer instinct in order to accomplish its ultimate goal...getting to Columbus. Unfortunately, the Buccs could never capture the one tangible he felt would get them over the hump.

The result was a shocking 7-2 defeat in the sectional tournament to Lehman on the Buccs' home field.

"This team has the talent to get to Columbus," said a disappointed Covington coach. "But we never developed the killer instinct to put teams away. You've got to have that in order to get through the tournament. We showed signs of it throughout the year, but never put it together."

Still, Covington was able to rack up 16 wins and just three losses and its first CCC title in baseball heading into Wednesday's contest with Lehman. One of those wins was a 12-6 victory over these same Cavaliers earlier in the season.

But the sting from a second straight tournament loss to Lehman will linger for some time.

"This game was the same type of game as last year (a 3-1 Lehman victory)," Hirsch described. "We had no passion, no emotion and wasn't into the game. I can't figure it out."

Covington, who has been hitting the ball well on a regular bases coming into the contest, found it difficult to hit Lehman hurler Spencer Peltier. The Buccs could only manage four hits on the night.

"We didn't hit the ball well at all," said Hirsch. "He (Peltier) was hitting the outside of the plate and we didn't adjust. Instead of crowding the plate and going with the pitch, we were trying to pull the ball."

After Covington opened the scoring in the first on a Gene Studebaker single that scored Kyle Kanet, Lehman took the lead with a run in the second and another in the third.

The Cavaliers then added to the lead in the fifth with two more runs, both coming with two outs.

The damage got even worse in the sixth as the Cavaliers scored three more runs to virtually seal the contest.

Covington did scored a run in the bottom of the seventh, but there would be no rally to salvage the season.

"We had a good season, but for our tournament to end this way is very disappointing," Hirsch said. "These kids worked very hard and really wanted to make a good run. For it to end like this is heartbreaking."

The Buccs do have one more game left, which is a make-up game against Tri-County North next Wednesday. Should Covington win, it will finish the conference schedule unbeaten.

"Hopefully we can come out next week and get us a "W"," concluded Hirsch. "It would be nice to end on a positive note."

Scoring by Innings:
Lehman .............0....1....1....0....2....3....0 - 7
Covington .........1....0....0....0....0....0....1 - 2