MAY 19, 2011 - PLEASANT HILL
Each inning the Covington Lady Buccs came into the dugout the coaches kept urging the girl to score more runs - even after taking a 5-0 lead with two runs in the top of the fifth inning.

"We need more runs," Covington assistant coach Ed Boggs told the girls. "Five runs isn't enough."

And it nearly wasn't enough as Twin Valley South erupted for three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a solo home run by Emily Froment and a two-run homer by Katey Straszheim.

The Panthers then scored another run in the bottom of the seventh and had a runner on base with the top of the order coming to the plate.

"We know how to make it interesting," sighed Covington coach Dean Denlinger afterward. "Man, that was gut-wrenching."

Fortunately for Covington, reliever Aubrye Cain was able to force a grounder to shortstop Casey Yingst, who flipped the ball to second baseman for the final out to preserve the 5-4 win and a sectional title.

"That's a big win," said Denlinger. "Let's give credit where credit is due, they are ranked fourth in the state and seeded second in our bracket for a reason. That's good team we just beat."

And it took stellar pitching efforts by Chloe Shell and Aubrye Cain, an outstanding defensive performance across the board and timely hitting to get the job done.

Covington got on the board first with two runs in the top of the second as Connor Schaeffer led off with a single and Heidi Snipes moved her to second with a sacrifice.

Hannah Pond and Chloe Shell followed with singles to load the bases and Shainna Grilliot connected to drive in Schaeffer, who beat out the throw to the plate for the first run of the game.

Jesse Shilt then capped the inning with a base hit to score Pond from third, but a potential third run was gunned down at the plate by South for the final out of the inning.

"We had two nice base hits in that inning to the right side," explained Denlinger. "The girls did a nice job of going with the pitch."

Covington extended the lead to 3-0 with a run in the top of the fourth. as Pond singled and stole second. Grilliott then laid down a bunt that was thrown by the first baseman to score Pond from second base.

The hot bats continued for Covington in the top of the fifth as Aubrye Cain led off with a double off the fence in left-center and Connor Schaeffer connected on a blooper to right field to score Cain.

Schaeffer stole second base to put another runner in scoring position and Heidi Snipes lined a base hit to right-center to bring Schaeffer in for the second time in the contest.

"That's a great pitcher they have," praised Denlinger of South's Emily Froment. "We did a nice job of working the count and taking what she gave us."

Covington has a great pitcher too in Chloe Shell and the senior was in the midsts of a one-hitter after five innings of play.

But things got interesting in the top of the sixth as Shell hurt her wrist on her pitching hand fouling off a pitch at the plate.

"I could see her wince," Denlinger described.

The affects showed in the bottom of the sixth as Shell had trouble hitting her spots. Froment and Straszheim took advantage by going yard to get Twin Valley South back into the game.

"The one to Froment was actually a perfect pitch," Denlinger stated. "She (Shell) threw a change-up down in the zone that Fremont somehow crushed off the ground. You can't do much about that. But the pitch to Straszheim was a meat ball. It was right down the middle of the plate."

Denlinger replaced Shell with Cain, who recorded the final out of the inning.

But Twin Valley South wasn't done as it cut the Covington lead to 5-4 with a run in the bottom of the seventh and had the tying run on base with the leadoff batter coming to the plate.

The Covington defense, which had played nearly perfect throughout the contest, made the final play it needed to get the final out and preserve the win.

"The girls played well considering we wasn't sure if we were even going to get to play the game because of the rain," Denlinger said. "The field conditions were horrible at the beginning of the game, but it did get better as the game went on."

Overcoming adversity is something Covington has become accustom to this past week. Twice the game was cancelled and the Lady Buccs lost a key player due to an injury suffered in practice this week.

"Yeah, we're down to ten girls now," said Denlinger. "We lost Brittanie (Flora) this week, which is unfortunate because she's worked so hard and has been playing very well."

The victory moves Covington into the District Final on Saturday against Riverside. The game will be played in Brookville at 11:00am.

SCORING BY INNINGS:
Covington ......................0..2..0..1..2..0..0 - 5 - 10 - 0
Twin Valley South ........0..0..0..0..0..3..1 - 4 - 6 - 2