A grand slam by David Moss got the Buccs rolling and a late surge sealed the contest in an 11-4 victory.

April 10, 2007 – NEW PARIS
In five contests this season the Covington Buccaneers are still unbeaten, but have yet to put together a complete performance. This fact has been on the mind of Buccaneer head coach Mitch Hirsch since the season opener.

"We haven't put it all together yet," said Hirsch. "I told the kids before the game tonight (against National Trail) that they don't know how good they really are. If the kids decide they want to play seven innings of solid baseball, they can be scary."

Hirsch saw glimpses of a scary baseball team in an 11-4 victory over National Trail, which has him optimistic that the Buccaneers are turning the corner.

"We're swinging the bats well and have had pretty good pitching," Hirsch described. "We just have to continue to improve defensively and develop a killer instinct of putting teams away when we have them down."

Covington started the contest with a bang as David Moss capped the top of the first with a grand slam.

As they have done in previous outings, the Buccaneers went into cruise control and failed to score in three straight innings.

Meanwhile, National Trail battled its way back to tie the score in the third as Covington committed two critical errors that gave the Blazers new life.

"It's the same old story," Hirsch commented. "We jumped to an early lead and kicked it into neutral - allowing them to get back into the game. It's like the kids turn it on and off when they want too."

Covington turned it on throughout the remainder of the contest, scoring seven runs in the final three innings. The defense stiffened by not allowing National Trail any opportunities to put runs on the board.

Andy Sparks started the contest on the mound and recorded five strikeouts before exiting in the third.

Sophomore Kyle Kanet came in and pitched three innings and picked up the win before being relieved by Brad Plank in the sixth.

Plank struck out five in the final two innings as National Trail couldn't catch up with the left hander's curve ball.

"We knew coming in that they (National Trail) had a hard time hitting curve balls," Hirsch explained. "We struggled getting them over the plate early, but once we settled down we were able to take control."

Moss had the big night from the plate - batting 2 for 4, recording 5 RBI and hitting the grand slam.

Tyler Kanet and Nate Lavey also had solid efforts from the plate by going 2 for 3.

Covington improves to 4-0-1 on the season and travels to Tri-County North on Thursday to take on the defending Cross County Conference champions.

Scoring by innings:
Covington ...........4....0....0....0....1....4....2 - 11
Trail ......................2....0....2....0....0....0....0 - 4