Sometimes you have the luxury of trading runs for outs. And so perhaps lost in the 8-3 win that Orange County put together over Dinwiddie to earn a berth in the Region 4B championship game, is that freshman Hannah Hearl threw the first six innings without allowing a runner to reach third, much less home. On her way to 13 totals strike outs she also K’d eight batters in a row from the middle of first through the third inning.
“She’s just excellent,” said Orange coach Neal Ferguson. “She’s really good right now and if she keeps this up she’s going to be very special. She was really consistent today, hitting her spots at about an 80% clip. So her pitches were really working for her. The stuff at the end, that’s my pitch calling just looking for contact to try and keep the pitch count down and get outs.”
It was a busy day at the plate for the Hornets in just about all possible ways. Some big hits, some small ball and everything in between was on display. And so while Dinwiddie was able to rally in the seventh for three and leave two more stranded on the basepaths, at the end of the day, the Hornets showed their unbeaten record wasn’t an accident both in the circle behind their freshman in Hearl and at the plate from its entire order with Haley Martin going 3-for-4 in the third spot and Riyana Bright going 4-for-4 hitting eighth.
“Riyana Bright, she’s an 8-hole and a lot of teams assume she’s not that great of a hitter and it’s the opposite, she’s a great hitter,” Ferguson said. “She’s in that spot for a reason so we can turn over the order and allow our other hitters to knock her in and get us some more runs.”
Orange pounced on Dinwiddie in the second inning after back-to-back singles from Megan Fincham and Bright and a sacrifice bunt put them both in scoring position. With two outs Reese Rogers came up clutch with a 2-run double to make it 2-0 and give Hearl some wiggle room to work with.
“The 2-out hitting, that’s something that Reese has been doing for us all year so we’re not surprised by that right there,” Ferguson said.
In the top of the fourth Morgan Tucker launched a 2-out double but Hearl answered back with her 10th strikeout of the game to squash any chance of a rally.
“I just threw as well as I could,” Hearl said. “I was kind of nervous but I got through it, we got through it. It was just a really good game.”
On the other side of the fourth, Orange got a leadoff single from Bright. After a pop out to second and a fielder’s choice, Rogers drew a walk with two outs. That set the table for Haley Martin who came through with an RBI double to right center. Then Marci Fayard drew a bases loaded walk to make it 4-0.
“(The run support) makes me feel like we’re on top and so now I’m going to do even better in the circle,” Hearl said.
Bright and Laura Fincham connected on back-to-back singles with one out in the fifth. Then Kennon Burnett delivered an RBI single to left with she and Fincham tapping into some clever base running to both advance on the throw home. That allowed Reese Rogers to deliver a sacrifice fly. Then Martin busted the game open with a 2-run no-doubter to center field.
“You’re just looking to help out your pitcher there, get some more runs, and so I was looking for something inside pitch and that’s what came so I jumped on it,” Martin said. “Offensively I think our team was just always behind eachother, helping eachother with what we saw at the plate and then we applied it and got on time and we started swinging the bats really well.”
In addition to Martin and Bright’s multi-hit evening, Kennon Burnett was 2-for-4 with an RBI adn two runs scored. Rogers finished 1-for-2 with three RBI and two walks.
Dinwiddie rallied for its three runs on an RBI singles from Summer Martin, Kaitlyn Williams and Bryce Everette scoring on a throwing error. However, the tying run never reached the on deck circle and with a pop out to second base the Hornets wrapped up the win.
Orange will travel to face Hanover in the Region 4B championship on Thursday at 6 p.m.
