APRIL 29, 2010 - PLEASANT HILL
The Covington Buccaneers have been up and down all season - at times looking like a solid baseball team and other times showing the inexperience of a young team.

But it appears as though the Buccs have found some consistency as they recorded a second straight win by beating Newton 12-1 in six innings. It's the first time all year Covington has won consecutive games.

"We're coming around," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch. "It starts with our pitching and we had two complete games the past two nights. With all the games we've been playing lately, we needed that."

Wednesday against Bethel it was Jake Bitner who went the distance and tonight it was Adam Craft controlling the action on the mound against Newton.

Craft struck out nine batters and walked just two batters in recording the two-hitter.

"Adam didn't have his curve ball working as well as he'd like, but he threw his fastball by people," Hirsch explained. "He's stepped up the last couple of games he's thrown for us."

The tone of the game was established in the top of the first inning as Covington scored two runs when Newton should have been out of the inning.

The first two Buccaneer batters struck out and Jake Bitner followed with a double to right field.

Adam Craft reached on a dropped third strike and a Newton error followed that resulted in the two Buccaneer runs.

In all, the host Indians killed themselves with seven errors.

"We took advantage of their mistakes," said Hirsch. "Their pitcher did a good job of keeping the ball down on us, but they made some mistakes in the field that we were able to benefit from."

Covington did rack up 13 hits on the afternoon, all of them coming against a gusty wind blowing in from right-center field.

"We hit the ball hard a few times, but with the wind blowing the way it was we had to keep the ball down," Hirsch said. "The kids did a good job of taking what was given to us."

Two more runs went on the board in the second inning, but Newton responded with a run in the bottom of the third.

Covington wouldn't score again until the top of the fifth with two more runs and a six-run sixth inning by the Buccs ended matters.

Bitner went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI, while Brandon Flora drove in two runs on a 2-for-3 afternoon. Steven Blei also recorded a pair of base hits and drove in a run.

The victory improves Covington's record to 7-14 on the season and 5-3 in CCC play.

The Buccs host Tri-Village tomorrow night.

SCORING BY INNINGS:
Covington ..........2...2...0...0...2...6 - 12 - 13 - 1
Newton ...............0...0...1...0...0...0 - 1 - 2 - 7