MAY 12, 2011 - COVINGTON
The Covington Lady Buccs recorded their 20th win of the season Thursday afternoon with a 4-0 victory over National Trail in sectional tournament play at Covington High School.

It's the third straight 20-win season for Covington in the four years under coach Dean Denlinger.

"That's a nice accomplishment for our program," Denlinger said. "We almost had 20 my first year here, but we fell one game short with 19."

The 20th win wasn't easy, however. Covington had to work for all four runs and two of the runs came after a controversial call.

In the bottom of the third with two outs, Covington's Casey Yingst was hit in the hand while attempting to twist and turn her body away from a pitch that was chest high and well inside. National Trail protested that Yingst made an attempt to hit the ball while protecting herself and that the hand was part of the bat.

But Yingst was awarded first base and Connor Schaeffer followed with a two-run double to give Covington a 3-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Covington starter Chloe Shell was in control on the mound.

National Trail was able to get runners on second and third with one out in the top of the third, but Shell got herself out of the jam by recording a strikeout and then forcing a ground out to end the threat.

Covington then tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth and Shell was replaced on the mound by sophomore Casey Yingst.

And Yingst was on fire, striking out five of the six batters she faced.

"This is two games in a row she's pitched well," said Denlinger of Yingst. "She threw well at Milton and again tonight. She had good command of her fastball a threw a couple of nice rise balls. Only one time she missed her spot."

Defensively Covington didn't have any errors, but it wasn't a defensive effort Denlinger was completely satisfied with.

"We are better than this defensively," he said. "A couple of times there were balls we didn't make very strong attempts to chase down. I wasn't pleased with our effort."

And Denlinger knows he'll need a much better effort next Tuesday in the sectional final against Twin Valley South.

"It (the sectional final game) will come down to one or two plays," he explained. "That could be a hit, an error or someone making a play or even a mistake on the bases. We have to be more focused than we were tonight. If there is a foul ball that seems like it may be out of reach, we have to do everything humanly possible to get there and make the play."

In the last meeting between the two teams it took a walk-off home run by Connor Schaeffer in the bottom of the seventh inning for Covington to capture the 6-5 win.

The rematch is slated for Tuesday, May 17th at Newton High School with the sectional championship on the line.

SCORING BY INNINGS:
National Trail ............0..0..0..0..0..0..0 - 0 - 2 - 0
Covington ..................0..1..2..0..1..0..x - 4 - 8 - 0