It wasn’t a good start for the Bethel softball team last week, as they hosted perennial power Covington in their Cross County Conference showdown, as the Bees was trying to get their first league win of the season.

The Buccs plated four runs in the opening inning to set the tone, as they defeated the Bees 13-1 in a five-inning run-rule game.

“Covington is traditionally a strong program, and they have five seniors which is the complete opposite of us,” Bethel coach Jeremy Reittinger said. “We did a few things defensively that I thought we did a good job but we just couldn’t execute. Just some of those kinds of things you need to do against good teams that we didn’t do.”

Covington opened the game with a run scoring on a stolen base, then an RBI single and a tough play for the Bees when the ball was grounded back to the pitcher, and the throw was high allowing the final run to score.

Bethel answered back with a single run of their own in the first inning, as Grace Anthony reached on an infield single, and after two were out, Morgan Reittinger doubled to score Becky Schweiterman who had reached on a fielders choice, putting the Bees on the board. Reittinger was left in scoring position when Maddy Casto struck out.

Another run scored in the second for the Buccs on a two-out single followed by another hit that brought the runner in from first, making it 5-1.

Covington scored another run in the third before plating four runs in the fourth inning. One run scored on a stolen base, another on a wild pitch then a pair of hits made it 9-1.

Maddy Cain reached for Bethel on an error with one out in the fourth but couldn’t score. Then came the fifth inning that put the game away for the Buccs.

Covington scored four runs in the top of the fifth, meaning the Bees had to score at least three times to keep the game going. A two-out single from Schweiterman was for naught as Reittinger flew out to center to end the game.

“We did make some contact with the ball, but we had no timely hitting,” Reittinger said. “When we had runners on base we couldn’t get it done. That has kind of been the story of our season so far.”

Also last week, the Bees fell behind 9-1 to Tri County North before scoring late in the game, plating five runs in the seventh only to fall 9-6.