April 9, 2009 - COVINGTON
The Covington Lady Buccs continue to roll as they won their fifth straight game Thursday by an 8-2 score over Minster.

The win improves Covington to 5-0.

"It's a nice win over a quality team, but we're not celebrating anything yet," said Covington coach Dean Denlinger. "We haven't won anything yet because our conference schedule doesn't begin until next week."

Still, Covington has been finding ways to win because the girls are gaining a better understanding of their roles with each passing day.

"We're understanding our roles at different times of the game, which is very important in the style of softball we like to play," Denlinger explained. "We're starting to make better adjustments at the plate and executing the small ball game better."

Which was on display Thursday as eight of the nine Covington batters recorded hits and the team combined for 13 hits on the afternoon.

"Thirteen hits is pretty good and having eight kids get a hit shows everyone is contributing," Denlinger said. "But I wasn't happy about the eight times we struck out. Six of those were in two innings."

After a scoreless first inning Covington erupted for five runs in the second thanks to some timely hits. One of those hits was a two-run double by Kristen Boggs.

Minster responded in the top of the third with two runs, but Covington scored a run in its half of the third and another in the fourth to take a 7-2 lead.

The Lady Buccs then capped the afternoon with a final run in the sixth.

Halley Roberts started the contest and went four innings with seven strikeouts and allowing just one hit - the only hit Minster had on the day.

Kristen Boggs and Chloe Shell also saw action on the mound, holding Minster without a hit the rest of the way.

"Halley pitched well and having Kristen back is big," Denlinger said. "We threw her (Boggs) a couple of innings and her ball was moving a lot."

The two also came up big at the plate as Boggs went 3-4 with a double, stolen base and two RBI and Roberts went 2-4 with an RBI.

Hannah Pond and Carol Bayse each went 2-3, while freshman Haley Smith continued with her hot bat by pounding in two RBI.

"Hannah and Haley both do some very nice things for us as freshman," Denlinger said. Hannah had two nice drag bunts and Haley continues to come up with the big hit."

Covington is back in action on Saturday as Russia comes to town for a double-header.

Scoring by Innings:
Minster ................0...0...2...0...0...0...0 - 2 - 1 - 3
Covington ...........0...5...1...1...0...1...- - 8 - 13 - 1