Everything that could go wrong went wrong for a lackluster Covington team as Minster handed the Buccs an embarrassing 15-0 defeat.

April 21, 2007 – COVINGTON
The Covington Buccaneers and the Minster Wildcats took to the diamond at Fort Loramie High School in a highly anticipated match-up of two unbeaten teams.

The anticipation quickly turned into frustration and disappointment for the Buccaneers as Minster jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

"We didn't come ready to play," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch. "How we can come into a game against a team like Minster and not be motivated and excited is beyond me."

In the inning Minster benefitted from five walks and four unearned runs as the Covington pitchers had problems finding the strike zone. The Buccaneers walked a total of ten batters and hit another, giving the Wildcats every opportunity to put runs on the board.

"We didn't have a good day pitching," explained Hirsch. "We never got ahead of the batters and had too many past balls."

Covington had success swinging the bats as it scattered nine hits on the day. The Buccaneers also had runners in scoring position in every inning but the fifth, but failed to capitalize.

"We swing the bat well, but were never able to come up with the big hit," said Hirsch. "We left two runners in the first and second, one in the third and bases loaded in the fourth."

The Buccaneers settled down over the next three innings as they held Minster scoreless in the second, third and fourth.

But a mistake filled fifth inning by the Buccaneer defense got the Wildcats rolling again for six more runs in the inning. Covington ended up with three errors on the afternoon.

Needing six runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game to a six inning, Covington's bats went cold. Minster recorded three straight outs to end the game to hand the Buccs an embarrassing 15-0 defeat.

"We had nine hits and they had nine hits," explained Hirsch. "But they didn't make the mistakes we made. When you get behind 9-0 in the first inning against a good team it totally takes you out of your game. We were never able to recover."

The victory drops Covington's record to 8-1 but Hirsch hopes it is a blessing in disguise.

"We'll learn from this and hopefully come back Monday ready to play," closed Hirsch. "We've got to get some fire. Hopefully the kids realize they need to come ready to play for seven innings no matter who the opponent is. We're better than we showed today, that's for sure."

The Buccaneers will look to redeem themselves on Monday as they travel to New Knoxville.

Scoring by innings:
Minster .................9.....0....0....0....6 - 15
Covington .............0.....0....0....0....0 - 0