Orange County baseball’s Cannon Davies allowed some runners on base while surrendering eight hits during his six innings on the mound.
But Western Albemarle struggled to capitalize on those runners as Davies struck out eight in six innings while giving up just one earned run to help Orange edge out Western 4-3 at home Thursday night.
That win only came though after a Western Albemarle rally attempt in the seventh fell just short. Wyatt Hull got the rally going with a single and then freshman Nathan Fink drew a walk. That prompted Orange to bring in Tucker Hensley, who immediately got a strikeout and subsequently gave up a run on a Jacob Lively single to center. Hensley settled back in though and finished the game with a strikeout-walk-strikeout combination.
Orange County trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third when they finally got on the board and cut the Western lead to 2-1. They took control of the game in the bottom of the fourth where they reeled off three runs. Keenan Williams tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI single that scored Hensley and then Davies helped his own cause with a double to third to score Williams. Brett Jennings extended the lead to 4-2 when he scored on a passed ball.
From there, defense and pitching allowed the Hornets to hold on for the critical Jefferson District win.
Lively finished the day 3-for-4 for the Warriors to lead the offense. Hull scored two runs and Zachary Mallia had a triple.
The Warriors will look to bounce back Monday at Culpeper while Orange hosts Spotsylvania Wednesday.
