APRIL 18, 2011 - NEW BREMEN
No lead is safe when your team continues to commit mistakes in the field.

Which is what the Covington baseball team found out Monday night at New Bremen as the Buccs squandered a 5-0 lead by giving the host Cardinals three unearned runs in a 6-5 defeat.

"If we field the ball, we win," said Covington coach Mitch Hirsch in disbelief. "Our three errors resulted in three runs and the winning run for them was scored on an error. It's all on us."

Covington dominated the game over the first three innings, scoring a run in the second and four runs in the third to take a commanding 5-0 lead.

All the while Steven Blei was throwing a stellar game on the mound, holding new Bremen scoreless in the process.

"We started off fine," Hirsch said. "Steven was throwing a nice game and we got the big two-out hit in the third inning that scored a pair of runs."

Thee big hit with two outs came from the bat of senior Corey Haines, who drilled a two-run single to cap the four-run inning.

But things slowly unraveled from Covington from there.

First, New Bremen changed to a left-handed pitcher and the Buccs failed to record another hit over the remainder of the contest.

Second, the Buccaneers committed all three of their errors in the final four innings, three resulting in runs.

"We just stopped hitting (after the third)," explained Hirsch. "They made the pitching change and we never made the adjustments at the plate. He (the New Bremen pitcher) shut us down."

Still, there was some room for error with a 5-0 lead, but New Bremen immediately took advantage of two Covington errors to cut the deficit to 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth.

The dagger came in the bottom of the seventh, however, as another Covington error in the outfield gave New Bremen the final run it needed for the comeback win.

"We haven't put it together yet," Hirsch said. "When we do, we should be pretty good, but that won't happen until with start make the plays we need to make on a consistent bases."

Blei pitched well for four-and-a-third before surrendering to Kyler Deeter, who also threw well under the circumstances.

Haines drove in three of Covington's five runs in the contest, while a Blei and Sheldon Rank drove in the other two runs for the Buccs.

Covington drops to 2-9 on the season and will host Twin Valley South tomorrow afternoon.

SCORING BY INNINGS:
Covington ..............0..1..4..0..0..0..0 - 5 - 5 - 3
New Bremen .........0..0..0..3..1..0..2 - 6 - 8 - 3