Hornet boys handed first loss

If the Hornets had to lose, Tuesday night was a better time to do it than next Wednesday.
With a 4-1 loss to Louisa at Western Albemarle in the Jefferson District semifinals, the Hornets have a week to lick their wounds and get ready for a Region II home game next Wednesday.
Orange (20-1) and the Lions (8-9) battled evenly most of the night. The Lions scored first in the top of the first when Gunnar Carroll singled and scored on Christian Oliver’s double.
But the Hornets came back in the bottom of the second with a double from D.J. Brown and a run-scoring single from Tres Winkler.
Brown pitched well and kept the Lions at bay, yielding only three hits while striking out five through seven innings. But the Lions got four hits in the eighth and took advantage of a couple Orange errors to plate three runs to shock the Hornets.
Orange couldn’t match the Lions in the bottom half of the inning and took its first loss.
Still, the Hornets had their chances. Orange let a pair of scoring opportunities pass in the fourth, when two baserunners were thrown out trying to advance to home-one on a groundball, another on a pickoff.
“We’re sitting here a little disappointed because we felt like we beat ourselves,“ Orange coach Jesse Lohr said. “But we played against a good baseball team that happened to execute on our mistakes and get some big hits. We didn’t get the hits when we needed them in the fourth.“
The Lions advance to face to the Jefferson District Tournament final Thursday hoping to secure the district’s second Region II berth. Orange will host a first-round game next Wednesday at Porterfield Park.