COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers opened up the 2024 season with an impressive 11-1 run-rule victory in five innings over Botkins.
The game was close after four innings with the Buccaneers clinging to a 2-1 lead until a nine-run inning in the bottom of the fifth ended the game.
The Buccs opened up the scoring on an RBI single by Ashton Skaggs that scored Connor Humphrey in the bottom of the second.
Covington pushed its lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly ball by Brairen Denson that scored Tyler Jay.
Botkins had some fight in them as they closed the gap with a run in the top of the fourth with the bases loaded. Fortunately the Buccaneers were able to get out of the jam to prevent further damage.
Covington erupted in the bottom of the fifth with nine runs beginning with a two-run double by Tanner Palsgrove that scored Tyler Jay and Brairen Denson. Grant Blore followed up with a double that scored Palsgrove from second and Connor Humphrey connected on a two-run single to score Carter Owens and Grant Blore.
Things unraveled for Botkins as the Buccaneers loaded the bases and Connor Humphrey scored on a walk drawn by Tyler Jay. Brairen Denson doubled for the second time, which scored Ashton Skaggs and Carson Taylor and Tyler Jay scored on a walk drawn by Carter Owens to end the game via run-rule.
Freshman Brairen Denson started his first game on the hill in his high school career and put forth an amazing performance by throwing all five innings. He struck out eight batters and allowed just three hits and two walks.
The defense behind Denson was stellar as well as the Buccaneers didn’t commit a single error throughout the entire game.
Offensively, the Buccaneers pounded out 10 hits and took advantage of five walks and two errors.
Brairen Denson, Tanner Palsgrove, Grant Blore and Connor Humphrey all had two hits, while Tyler Jay and Ashton Skaggs recorded one hit each. The biggest hits in the game came on a triple and a double by Palsgrove, a pair of doubles by Denson and another double by Blore.
The Buccs host Troy Christian tomorrow night to open up the TRC matchups.
