April 30, 2008 – COVINGTON
After a slow start, the Covington Buccaneers broke out the bats and overwhelmed Tri-Village with 12 hits in an 11-1 victory in five innings.

"We started slow, but once we got going we never stopped hitting," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch. "We had seven extra base hits tonight, so we hit the ball hard."

After a scoreless first inning, Covington got on the board with a run in the second as freshman Jake Bitner singled to drive in Logan Woloch after Woloch reached on a one-out double.

Covington then broke the game open in the bottom of the third with five runs.

With one out Bitner was hit by a pitch and Darrell Thobe followed with a walk to put runners on first and second.

Kyle Kanet drilled a double to score Bitner and David Moss followed with an RBI single to score Thobe.

Two more Covington runs came in as Adam Craft doubled to score Moss and Kanet. Craft then went to third on a wild pitch to set up the fifth run of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Nate Lavey.

"For some reason we didn't have a lot of emotion in the first couple of innings," Hirsch explained. "When we came to bat in the bottom of the third I challenge the kids to pick it up. They are hard to figure out sometimes because they are so relaxed, but we seem to hit the ball better when we have emotion in the dugout."

Covington kept the hot hitting going in the bottom of the fourth with four more runs to push the lead to 10-1.

Brent Shively got things started with a single and then moved to second on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Logan Woloch.

Bitner continued his impressive day with an RBI double to score Shively and then scored himself as Thobe reached on an error by Tri-Village.

Kyle Kanet then connected for the big hit as he crushed a two-run homer.

It was Covington's 14th home run of the season as a team.

"I don't know if a Covington team has ever hit that many in a year," Hirsch said. "We haven't hit that many since I've been here, but I don't know what the school record is. We have to be up there."

While the Covington hitters were having a big night, Buccaneer pitcher Darrel Thobe quietly went about his business on the mound.

The junior pitched a complete game and allowed just six hits, while striking out eight and allowing no walks.

"Darrell pitched a nice game tonight," Hirsch praised. "He was in command of his pitches and kept them off balance all night."

Nate Lavey and David Moss each went 2-for-2 on the afternoon with Lavey driving in three runs and Moss recording a double.

Bitner and Kanet went 2-for-3 on the night. Kanet homered, doubled and pounded in three runs, while Bitner doubled and recorded two RBI.

Also recording doubles for Covington were Adam Craft, Andy Sparks and Logan Woloch.

"We've swung the bats pretty well all year," Hirsch said. "The kids are having fun and it shows."

Covington improves to 14-5 overall and 8-1 in the CCC.

The Buccs have three more conference games to close out the regular season with Ansonia being next on the schedule on Friday night.

Scoring by Innings:
Tri-Village ........0...0...0...1...0 - 1 .. 6 .. 2
Covington ........0...1...5...4...1 - 11 .. 12 .. 0