PLEASANT HILL – There’s no second chances in the state tournament and the mistakes Covington made against Fort Loramie on Tuesday in the sectional final ended its season with a 13-9 loss.
The mistakes began in the top of the first as the Lady Buccs let a ball drop in shallow right field, which would have been the third out of the inning if it were caught. Instead, Fort Loramie used the break by scoring four runs – all with two outs.
The Lady Buccs then had opportunities to score in the bottom half of the inning, but two base running miscues led to a runner being thrown out at home plate and another being thrown out at third.
Covington did finally score in the second with two runs, but again, a base running miscue led to a double play that prevented the Lady Buccs from doing further damage.
The double play seemed to ignite Fort Loramie in the top of the fifth as the Redskins broke the game open with a five-run inning by taking advantage of a misread ball in the outfield and a bobbled ground ball at short. The big hit for Loramie came on a two-run home run.
Trailing 9-2, Covington showed it wasn’t going to go down easy as it plated four runs in the bottom of the fifth and then cut the deficit to 9-8 with a pair of runs in the sixth. Unfortunately, the Lady Buccs squandered a golden opportunity to put more runs on the board as a runner was once again gunned down at third.
Fort Loramie used the momentum again at the offensive end by scoring four runs in the top of the seventh to put the Lady Buccs in dire straights, 13-8.
Still, Covington continued to battle as it scored a run and had a runner at first with one out. Reaghan Lemp connected on a huge hit in the gap, but again, a Lady Bucc runner was thrown out at third base.
The Lady Buccs couldn’t manufacture any more runs as a hard hit ball was caught by Fort Loramie in center field to end the contest.
Covington connected on 15 hits in the contest with Maggie Anderson leading the way by driving in 2 runs on 3 hits. Nigella Reck, Karyanne Turner, Taylor Kirker and Erika Gostomsky all had 2 hits as well.
The Lady Buccs end their season with an 18-7 record.
