April 10, 2008 - CASSTOWN
The Covington Buccaneers drilled two of their three home runs in an eight-run first inning against Miami East tonight in a 12-2 victory.

The Buccs' offensive onslaught followed a 25-0 four-inning victory over Mississinawa Valley last night.

"We've scored 43 runs in or last 12 at bats," said a pleased Covington coach Mitch Hirsch. "You can't complain about that."

Both sophomore Adam Craft and freshman Jake Bitner hit three-run homers in the first inning, while senior David Moss connected with a two-run homer in the second. Craft's homer was his second of the year and Bitner's was his first of his high school career.

"They made some mistakes in the first inning that gave us some runners," Hirsch explained. "We were able to take advantage as Adam and Jake both hit homers."

Craft and Bitner's home runs were impressive, but it was the homer by Moss that drew awes from the crowd on hand. The Buccaneer senior launched a shot that cleared the center field fence and landed inside a fenced-in playground near the Jr. High School.

"He's been in a minor slump lately, but I think he's come out of it in a big way," Hirsch said. "He really got a hold of that one. He hit the ball hard all night. Some of those he got under a little and they were caught deep in the outfield, but he's starting to find his groove."

After taking a 10-0 lead in the first two innings, the Buccs were held scoreless in four straight innings.

But a two-run seventh inning capped an impressive outing.

"Those two runs in the seventh tells me a lot about this team," Hirsch stated. "It tells me that these kids just won't quit playing regardless of the circumstances. They stay on each other to stay focused and keep swinging the bats."

The 11-hit performance was an indication of that as well.

"Right now we're swinging the bats really well," Hirsch continued. "Even in the innings where we didn't score runs, we were hitting the ball hard. We only struck out twice all night, so we're making contact in just about every at bat."

Darrell Thobe had a solid outing on the mound as he pitched six innings with eight strikeouts and just one walk.

Kyle Kanet came in to close the show in the seventh and struck out two and recorded three outs on just seven pitches.

"Our pitching is really solid right now," said Hirsch. "I'd take our top three guys (Thobe, Moss and Andy Sparks) against anybody. We use Kyle (Kanet) right now as a closer and then to have a young arm in Jake (Bitner) - we have some pretty good pitchers."

Still, the season is early and Hirsch understands the importance of staying focused over the long haul.

"We can't get full of ourselves," he said. "We've have to stay focused and take it one game, one inning, one at bat and one out at a time."

With the way his team has performed so far this season, Hirsch feels confident his team is headed in the right direction.

"These kids are so fun to coach," Hirsch explained. "They don't care about their own stats, or who does what. All they care about is doing their job and doing what it takes to win. They just want to win."

After six games, winning is what Covington has done as it improves to 4-2 on the season and 2-0 in the CCC.

Hopefully it continues Friday as National Trail comes to town.

Scoring by Innings:
Covington ........8....2....0....0....0....0....2 - 12 .. 11 .. 2
Miami East .......0....1....1....0....0....0....0 - 2 ..... 8 .. 4