April 15, 2008 – COVINGTON
The Covington Lady Buccs evened their record to 5-5 on the season with a hard-faught 5-0 victory over Tri-County North, Tuesday.

"This was a good win," said Covington coach Dean Denlinger. "They have a pretty good team, so this wasn't a bad win at all."

It was Covington's eighth game in eight days, making for a much needed break tomorrow before heading to Twin Valley South on Thursday.

"We need a break," said Denlinger. "We've played a lot of softball in the past week. We'll practice tomorrow and after practice have some fun."

Covington had some fun in the first inning by scoring four of its five runs.

"It was good for us to get off to a fast start," Denlinger said. "We hit the ball hard in the first inning and was able to get some momentum."

Runs were hard to come by over the remainder of the contest as Covington could only manage just one more in the fifth inning.

But the scoring troubles were not due to stagnant bats as Covington pounded out nine hits on the afternoon.

"We hit the ball hard, but we couldn't get the runs," said Denlinger. "We did rotate some players in the fifth inning. We used 13 kids tonight."

The reason is Jessica Shrout was in command on the mound. The senior pitched six innings and allowed just two hits. She also struck out seven and walked just two batters.

"Jessica pitched very well again," praised Denlinger of his ace. "She was in control and did a good job of hitting her spots."

Freshman Chloe Shell relieved Shrout in the seventh and struck out two while not allowing a hit.

"It was nice to get Chloe in and let her finish it off," said Denlinger.

Shell was also solid at the plate as she went 2-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI.

Sarah Westfall was 2-for-2 with and RBI, while Kristen Boggs and Erin Christian also drove in runs.

Christian also doubled while going 1-for-3 on the afternoon.

Scoring by Innings:
Tri-County North .........0...0...0...0...0...0...0 - 0 .. 2 .. 3
Covington ....................4...0...0...0...1...0...x - 5 .. 9 .. 2