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Lions hold Hornets at bay

It wasn’t because they didn’t have their chances. Orange County threatened and threatened again late in the 1-run contest. But all season long, Louisa County managed to come out on the winning end of the squads’ hard fought battles and that didn’t change Wednesday.

A key defensive play in the sixth inning got Lions pitcher Gunnar Carroll out of a big jam and helped to preserve a 3-2 win in the Jefferson District semifinals.

“They had to make two good throws on that play and they made two great throws,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “We were trying to be aggressive knowing that when you get an opportunity to put Gunnar Carroll on the ropes you’ve got to come through with a big time play. We tried and it just didn’t happen.”

Down by a run, the Hornets had Corey Schmidt on third when Rahiem Cooper came up with a single. The Louisa defense checked the runner at third, then went to first, albeit not in time to make an out on Cooper but caught Schmidt trying to squeeze into home after the throw. Jim Hensley got the ball to catcher Jeff Buckler and the rundown was on and soon after, the inning was over.

“It was what we needed right when we needed it,” Carroll said.

The very next inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Schmidt came up to the plate a cranked a pop fly that backed Louisa outfielder Jake Seay to the warning track. But Seay got under it and recorded the final out.

The Hornets got on the scoreboard in the top of the first after Derek Justice reached base on a error and Cooper drove the senior in on a double.

However, the Lions answered right back in the bottom of the first on a two-run homer to right field from Dylan Wratchford.

“He’s our leading RBI guy now,” said Louisa coach Kevin Fisher. “He has just been smoking the ball.”

But outside of Wratchford, who also drove in the third run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, the Lions’ lineup was relegated to pop-flies and grounders as Dillon Wagner and reliever Mike Colvin kept the Hornets in the ball game with their pitching.

“We were pretty quiet, to be honest, with the bats tonight,” Fisher said. “Wagner threw really well for them and then Colvin came in and he threw well too. They got the job done on the mound.”

So too did Carroll. The Army commit had a visitor from West Point in attendence and the Jefferson District player of the year delivered nine strikeouts and no earned runs.

Orange was able able to cut the 2-run lead in half in the top of the fifth after Cooper was walked and brought around the around on a single and error, but that would be it. And so ends the high school careers of a decorated class that helped get the Hornets baseball program on track.

“We’re graduating some studs but we’re also graduating a quality class that got us a lot of wins,” Lohr said. “Our ressurection here, 46 wins in the last three years — we got a lot of wins out of these guys.”

The Lions will head to the Jefferson District title on Friday where they’ll see Fluvanna County. However, only pride is on the line as both teams have already punched their tickets to the Region II tournament, which begins on Monday.

“It’d be sweet to (sweep the district) but I’m not going to lie, we’re definitely more focused on regionals,” Fisher said.

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