May 10, 2008 – COVINGTON
The Covington Buccaneers locked up a share of the Cross County Conference Championship on Saturday with a hard-fought 6-2 victory over Bethel.

It's Covington's second straight league title and the Buccs can earn the championship outright with a win at Ansonia on Monday.

"It (winning the CCC) is a nice accomplishment," Covington coach Mitch Hirsch said. "It's a goal we set in the beginning of the season. Now we'll focus on winning the next game and getting ready for the tournament."

The Buccs received an outstanding pitching performance from David Moss, who went the distance and struck out seven batters.

"David pitched a solid game," Hirsch said. "He got stronger as the game went on."

Covington got things started in the bottom of the second inning as Logan Woloch drove in Andy Sparks after Sparks connected for a one-out double.

After Bethel tied the score in the top of the third, Woloch came up big at the plate in the fourth inning.

Nate Lavey led off the fourth with a single and Brent Shively followed with a one-out walk.

Woloch doubled to drive in Lavey and get Covington rolling toward a big inning.

"Logan had some big hits today," said Hirsch of his junior outfielder who went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. "It's big when your number nine hitter can come through with runners in scoring position."

With Shively purched on third and Woloch on second, the Buccs attempted a little trickery with the squeeze.

The strategy worked to perfection as Shively scored on the wild pitch to push the Covington lead to 3-1.

Jake Bitner then doubled to score Woloch from third.

The final run of the inning came on a two-out single by Kyle Kanet, who drove in Bitner.

"That was a big inning for us," Hirsch explained. "Anytime you play Bethel you know you are in for a close game. When you can get four runs in an inning in a close game like this, that's big."

Covington didn't sit on the lead as it scored another run in the bottom of the fifth as Adam Craft singled and Shively connected for an RBI double to increase the lead to 6-1.

The Bees did manage a run in the top of the sixth, but Moss and the Buccaneer defense closed the door in the seventh to seal the 6-2 win.

"I thought we played pretty well considering we haven't played a whole lot in the past week," Hirsch said. "We started out a little slow, but we got things going in the fourth."

Kyle Kanet went 3-for-4 on the day with an RBI, while Bitner, Sparks, Woloch and Shively each doubled.

Covington improves to 16-5 on the season and 10-1 in the CCC.

The Buccs can lock up the CCC outright with a win on Monday at Ansonia.

Scoring by innings:
Bethel ............0...0...1...0...0...1...0 - 2 .. 5 .. 2
Covington .....0...1...0...4...1...0...x - 6 .. 10 .. 2