April 25, 2008 – FORT LORAMIE
The Covington Buccaneers opened the opening round of the Fort Loramie Tournament with a convincing 14-2 victory over Troy Christian on Friday at Fort Loramie High School.

"We played pretty well," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch. "The kids were relaxed and played with confidence, which is what we needed to do tonight."

The Buccs scored in each of the seven innings and pounded out 12 hits on the afternoon.

"We swung the bats well throughout the game," Hirsch continued. "When you score in every inning, that's a pretty good indication of how well we hit the ball."

Covington started freshman pitcher Jake Bitner and by the the time he took the mound he already had a 4-0 lead.

Much of that was due to some Troy Christian errors in the infield.

"We got some breaks in the first inning as they threw a couple balls away," said Hirsch. "But good teams are suppose to take advantage of mistakes and we did that."

The lead gave Bitner some margin for error as he took the mound in the bottom of the first.

"Getting to a nice lead in our first at bat was big, especially when you're pitching a freshman " Hirsch explained. "Jake was able to come in with a four-run lead relaxed and confident."

Bitner's confidence grew as the game progressed as he didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning when Troy Christian connected for three hits. The Eagles also scored two runs with two outs in the fifth inning to keep from being run ruled.

"Jake threw really well, but he got a little tired," Hirsch explained. "We brought in Kyle (Kanet) to get us out of the inning."

By then, Covington had already scored 10 runs of its own and two more innings to play just meant for more runs.

The Buccs extended the lead to 11-2 with a run in the sixth and then capped an impressive offensive night with three runs in the seventh.

Andy Sparks pitched the bottom of the seventh to seal the deal and ease the nerves of the coach.

"I tend to get nervous in games like this (where the team gets out to an early lead)," described Hirsch. "There's always the concern that we'll relax too much. But this group doesn't get uptight, too high or too low. They just keep playing."

Covington received a pair of triples, one each from Sparks and Nate Lavey. Sparks was 2-for-4 with two RBI, while Lavey went 2-for-3 with three RBI.

Darrell Thobe and Kyle Kanet also contributed with a pair of RBI.

Covington will have little rest tomorrow as it plays two games with Minster being the first game at 11:00 am.

"That game will be a good test for us," Hirsch said. "Actually, our next three games will be good tests. We play two tomorrow and then St. Henry Sunday night at Fifth Third. We'll find out a lot about ourselves over the next two days."

Covington improves to 10-3.

Scoring by innings:
Covington ...........4...1...2...1...2...1...3 - 14 .. 12 .. 1
Troy Christian .....0...0...0...0...2...0...0 - 2 .. 3 .. 4