Covington’s Lauren Vickery becomes latest Lady Charger to sign a softball scholarship

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The last three years the Covington High School softball team has been loaded with talented players.

Despite losing the 2020 spring season to COVID-19, four of last year’s seniors are now playing college softball.

Now another talented player is headed to the next level.

Senior Lauren Vickery, an excellent hitter who is also expected to be the team’s ace pitcher next spring, signed with Jackson State Community College last Friday at First Baptist Church in Covington.

“She’ll be our best pitcher this year,” said Covington softball coach Justus Cousar. “She shared that duty the last couple of years but she’ll be the one we’ll be counting on this year.”

Vickery’s career pitching record is 9-3 with a 1.75 ERA and four saves. Her ERA was under one during her sophomore year. She’s also a career .430 hitter who plays first base when she’s not pitching.

When the 2020 season was cancelled, Vickery wondered how that would affect recruiting.

“I was kind of worried,” Vickery said. “I talked to my travel ball coach (Tony Knight) and he asked what kind of colleges I was interested in. He contacted them for me and I’m pretty sure they watched some of my videos.”

Taylor Schubert, JSCC’s head coach, reached out to Vickery, who toured the campus in Jackson, Tenn. and liked what she saw.

“Its really big, very nice,” Vickery said. “I really like the campus and the coach.”

It also helped to see 2020 seniors Leah Beasley (Union University), Brynn Browder (Bethel University), Brinley Cousar (Dyersburg State Community College) and McKenzie Richardson (DSCC) make it to the next level.

“I think that really motivated me to work at it more, get better,” Vickery said. “During the middle of junior year I realized, ‘Hey, yeah, I think I can do this’ … and it happened.”