April 29, 2008 – PLEASANT HILL
After a brutal weekend in which the Covington Buccaneers played five games in four days, Buccaneer coach Mitch Hirsch wasn't disappointed at all when Monday's game against New Knoxville was cancelled.

That gave his team a day of rest before a critical Cross County Conference match-up with rival Newton on Tuesday afternoon.

"We needed it (a rest)," said Hirsch. "Newton's always a solid team, so the day of rest helped."

It did as Covington's David Moss pitched a complete game and the Buccs pounded out ten hits in an 11-4 victory.

"David just pitched a complete game on Saturday, but he felt comfortable throwing on two days rest," Hirsch said. "Now, hopefully we can rest him for a week."

The senior struck out just three batters, but was economical as he threw strikes and kept the ball down in the strike zone.

"They (Newton) are a good hitting team and they always have been," praised Hirsch after Newton connected on nine hits on the day. "But Moss did a good job of keeping the ball down and throwing strikes."

Hirsch wasn't happy with the play of his defense as Covington committed four errors, which led to three of Newton's four runs being unearned. Two of those came on fly ball in the outfield in the same inning that would have resulted in the third out.

Another was a poor throw to third base that resulted in an easy run.

"We can't have those type of mistakes," Hirsch said. "That will kill us in the tournament. We've been solid defensively all season, but for some reason we stunk it up tonight."

Fortunately for Covington, a six-run third inning gave the Buccs enough of a cushion to make up for the mistakes.

Logan Woloch led off the inning with a double and Darrel Thobe walked with one out.

Kyle Kanet doubled to score Thobe and put runners at second and third.

Newton intentionally walked Moss to load the bases before Adam Craft hit into a fielder's choice as Newton threw out Thobe at the plate for the second out.

Nate Lavey then walked to bring in the second run and Andy Sparks reached on an error to make the score 4-0.

Brent Shively followed with a three-run double that bounced off the center field fence to increase Covington's lead to 7-1.

"That was a big hit by Brent," Hirsch said. "We had two outs and he was in a hole with an 0-2 count. He battled and put the ball in play."

Newton got on the board in the fourth with two runs, but Covington scored three runs in the six and another in the seven to virtually seal the contest.

Of Covington's ten hits on the afternoon, five of those went for extra bases as Shively, Nate Lavey, Kyle Kanet and Logan Woloch each doubles and Lavey pounded out a triple.

Lavey was 2-for-2 on the day with two RBI, while Kanet and Darrell Thobe each has a pair of hits and two RBI.

"We swung the bats pretty well today," Hirsch said. "We did a good job of driving the ball and going with the pitch."

The victory improves Covington's record to 13-5 overall and 7-1 in conference play.

The Buccs host Tri-Village tomorrow.

Scoring by Innings:
Covington ......0...1...6...0...0...3...1 - 11 .. 10 .. 4
Newton ...........0...0...0...2...0...0...2 - 4 ...... 9 .. 2