MARCH 31, 2011 - ST. PARIS
The Covington baseball team dropped its third straight game of the season by a 2-1 score at Graham on Thursday, but Covington coach Mitch Hirsch sees the potential of a really good ball club.

"The kids are starting to come around," said Hirsch. "We've got five new starters in the lineup and the jitters are starting to go away. Once we start hitting, we'll be pretty good."

Covington had seven errors in its season opener on Monday and only had one tonight.

"That's the type of defense we're capable of playing every night," Hirsch said. "We're not hitting the ball well enough right now to overcome defensive mistakes and this was our best defensive performance we've had so far."

Covington also received a stellar performance on the mound from sophomore Austin Angle, who only started pitching last season.

"He threw really well," Hirsch said of Angle. "This was his first varsity start, but he didn't get too high or too low. He threw strikes and kept them off balance and did a really nice job out there."

Angle went the distance for the Buccs, striking out four and walking four in seven innings of work.

But Graham was able to hold Covington scoreless through six innings and scored a run in the first and another run in the fourth for a 2-0 lead.

All the while, the Buccs only managed just one hit heading into the top of the seventh.

"That's our problem right now, hitting," said Hirsch.

Bryton Lear and Steven Blei started off the seventh with back-to-back singles and then Brandon Flora followed with a single to score Lear.

Covington used Kyler Deeter as a pinch runner for Blei and then moved the runners to second and third on a Graham miscue.

With one out and the tying run on third, Dylan Fortner flied out deep in the pocket at second and Kyler Deeter was caught tagging from third for the final out of the game.

"We weren't hitting the ball very well, so we tried getting Deeter in for the tying run," Hirsch explained. "Unfortunately, it didn't work."

Still, the effort and improvement is what Hirsch is looking for in his team.

"The kids played hard," Hirsch said. "We kept swinging away. The hitting will come and once we get some of the younger kids use to varsity pitching, we'll be fine."

The on-the-job training continues on Saturday with a double-header at Lehman.

SCORING BY INNINGS:
Covington .............0...0...0...0...0...0...1 - 1 - 3 - 1
Graham .................1...0...0...1...0...0...x - 2 - 5 - 1