Covington junior Rachel Smith hurled a complete-game two-hitter Thursday helping lead the Lady Lions to a 7-2 district road victory against the St. Scholastica Academy Doves.

Smith (9-6) improved her district record to 5-1 helping keep the Lady Lions at the top of the District 7-5A standings tied with Fontainebleau heading into yesterday’s district game against Mandeville.

SSA (5-10) slipped to 1-5 in district play going into yesterday’s game with the Lady Bulldogs.

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Smith turned in a dominating performance giving up just a second-inning one-out double to SSA’s Alexandria Hontas on an 0-2 pitch and a two-out single to the Doves’ Kristi McDaniel in the sixth inning.

Smith registered 10 strikeouts with just two harmless walks. She recorded at least one strikeout in each of her seven innings of work. She put down two Doves’ hitters on strikes in the second, fifth and seventh innings to keep SSA at bay.

“We made a lot of mistakes and we didn’t have our best game, but we won. Usually, we play a lot better,” Smith said.

Smith talked about getting early run support, which helped her out.

“I only walked two, but I probably would have been more nervous if we wouldn’t have had those runs,” the junior pitcher added.

Smith said her team has had a good first round and hopes they can keep it up. Smith said her best pitch was her fastball on the inside part of the plate.

CHS senior first baseman Megan Daughdrill went 3-4 and scored a run, while senior third baseman Kelsie Gassen delivered the offensive firepower going 2-4 including a solo homer in the Lady Lions’ three-run sixth inning. Gassen also produced a quality at bat singling in the fourth after fouling off five consecutive pitches before ripping a hit into right field.

Gassen talked about her homer.

“I was just trying to focus on getting a base hit trying to hit it hard anywhere, It just ended up going over. I got a pitch right down the middle. It was a meatball. I was looking for the pitch to be more inside,” Gassen said.

McDaniel (5-10) went the distance for SSA allowing seven runs on 10 hits. She struck out four and walked three.

CHS pushed across a run in the top of the first with Caroline Smith reaching on a lead off walk and eventually scored.

SSA tied it with a run in the bottom of the second. With one out, Hontas delivered a double and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Covington regained the lead plating two runs in the fourth as the Lady Lions touched McDaniel for three consecutive singles by Gassen, Daughdrill and Holly Stewart. Shai Thompson drew a walk, forcing in a run to reclaim a 2-1 lead. Tiffany Warren knocked in Daughdrill with a fielder’s choice grounder to make it 3-1 in favor of the Lady Lions.

Covington padded its lead tallying three more runs ion four hits n the sixth. Hallie Stewart singled with one out and stole second. She moved up to third as Caroline Smith reached on an error. Stewart scored on a passed ball and Smith advanced as well. Rocky Ingles came through with a double, but was later erased, while trying to score from third base on a ball that bounded away.

Doves’ catcher Erin Krause retrieved the ball and flipped to McDaniel covering the plate, who applied the tag. Gassen then stepped in and blasted her solo shot to center field to increase the score to 6-1. Daughdrill followed with a base hit, but McDaniel was able to retire the next hitter on a fly ball out to center.

SSA’s Amanda Krause reached on an error to open the Doves’ sixth inning. She advanced to second on a ground out and then stole third base. Emily Serpas stepped in and grounded a ball to shortstop. The base ump, who appeared to be screened on the play was unable to make a call and asked for help from the home plate umpire on the play at first base. He called Serpas out. SSA coach Charles Richard, who felt his runner was safe, argued the call, but the call was not changed. The play at first proved to be a big call because McDanniel came up and beat out an infield single to shortstop and Kristi Harrison then drew a walk, which would have loaded the bases had Serpas been ruled safe. Smith reared back and struck out the next hitter to strand McDaniel and Harrison with the Doves still trailing 6-2.

CHS added an insurance run in the seventh. Thompson led off reaching on an error and was bunted to second by Nicole Tisdale. Thompson ended up scoring on a passed ball, which closed out the scoring at 7-2..