COVINGTON – Fittingly, the battle for the inaugural Three Rivers Conference championship came down to the final league game between Covington and Miami East on Monday at Covington High School.
Covington entered the game unbeaten in the conference at 10-0, while Miami East came in with one league loss at 10-1 – which came against the Lady Buccs on April 14th by the score of 7-3.
In short, a win by Covington would result into sole possession of the league title for the Lady Buccs, while Miami East was looking to share the title with a win.
And Miami East used an opportunistic offense, solid pitching by senior Kyleigh Kirby and an error-free defensive effort in the field to accomplish its objective with a 12-1 victory.
After a scoreless first inning, the Lady Vikings broke the game open with seven runs in the second inning – six coming with two outs. In the inning, Miami East took advantage of two fielding errors by Covington with timely hits and aggressive base running.
The Lady Vikings then pushed their advantage to 9-0 with two runs in the top of the fifth – both coming with two outs.
Covington, who struggled finding a groove at the plate, loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. Karyanne Turner was able to score on a passed ball, but the Lady Buccs couldn’t get the big hit to get back into the game.
After getting out of the jam in the sixth, Miami East chopped the 12-1 win with three more runs in the top of the seventh.
In all, Miami East tallied 12 hits on the night with Madison Maxson leading the way with 3 hits. Kalli Teeters, Jacqueline Kadel, and Kiera Kirby had 2 hits each, while Kayly Fetters, Abigail Kadel and Meg Gilliland all had one hit.
Kyleigh Kirby went the distance in the circle for Miami East to record the win. She struck out 7 and walked 2.
Covington tallied 5 hits in the contest and committed 3 errors in the field. Reagan Lemp and Meg Rogers has 2 hits each, while Karyanne Turner had one hit.
Nigella Reck started in the circle and was replaced by Meg Rogers in the second inning.
Miami Wast improves to 17-4 overall and 11-1 in the TRC, while Covington drops to 15-5 overall and 10-1 in the league. The reason Covington played one less league game is due to Northridge forfeiting its season in mid-April.
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