For the first five innings there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Orange County defense. All of the first three runs they surrendered were on clean hits by Louisa County batters. And with the Hornets picking up a run in the first and fifth innings, the second meeting between these two schools appeared as though it would be as tight as the first battle which required extra innings. However, in the last two innings the wheels fell off defensively for Orange and the Lions were all to happy to pounce on the chances given to them as they pulled away late to take a 8-3 road win back with them to Mineral.
“We took advantage of their errors in the game and that really helped us a lot,” said Louisa coach Kevin Fisher. “I thought earlier in the game, we were hitting the ball right at (Orange) but we were hitting it hard and we’re getting the breaks. But we kept at it and finally we got those breaks.”
The Lions and Hornets traded runs in the first inning when Louisa’s Dylan Wratchford drove in Gunnar Carroll on an RBI single and Orange’s Derek Justice was able to bring home Trey Maupin on a fielder’s choice.
Before the two teams settled in defensively, the Lions tacked on a pair of runs when Brandon Perrin cranked a solo shot over the left field fence and Chase Brookman brought Jeff Buckler home on a single.
“I was looking curveball but didn’t get it and made a quick adjustment and got a solid piece on it,” Perrin said.
On the mound, Carroll locked down on the Orange lineup after allowing a run in the first. The Army bound senior retired 14 of the 17 batters he faced after Justice, collected nine strikeouts along the way. Carroll and his defense also worked there way out of one of the two big jams they would see on the night when perfectly executed a pickoff play with runners on first and third to earn one out before striking out the next two batters to end the fourth inning unharmed.
“That’s worked four times this year,” Carroll said. “Twice against (Orange) and twice against Fluvanna. Tonight, it was at a time where they could have scored some runs and made it a really good ball game but Brandon made a nice play when I got it to him.”
With two outs in the fifth, Justice came up with a triple that was nearly snagged, but fell to the ground on a diving attempt. The Orange senior then made it a 1-run game when he took home on a wild pitch.
But then defensive miscues took over. Carroll led off the top of the fifth with a triple and reached home on a relatively routine fly ball that wound up being dropped. Then a fielding and throwing error allowed two more runs to give Louisa a more comfortable 4-run lead.
“It’s the same old thing we’ve been dealing with all year long,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “It’s really attacking one person, it’s attacking several. No one is trying to make an error, it’s just been contagious for us.”
The Lions tacked on two more runs for good measure in the top of the seventh when Peter Culver hit a triple and was able to advance home when the Hornets missed their cutoff man from the outfield and Parrin came up with a sacrifice fly to bring in Carroll.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to second or third,” Culver said. “But I saw Coach waving his arms excited. I was sure I could make it, I was going to hold up at third but he was real excited so I kept going.”
With its back against the wall, Orange put itself in decent position to mount a rally as they loaded the bases, albeit with two outs. However on a wild pitch Trey Maupin was caught trying to take home when Buckler dug up the ball and Carroll was able to make the tag after running to cover the plate and wrap up the game.
“That’s how we drew it up,” Carroll joked. “No, that wasn’t but Jeff made a great play and we were glad to get that out.”
The Lions pitcher finished the game with 11 strikeouts to just four hits.
Louisa (11-6, 9-2) travels to Charlottesville on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Orange (10-7, 6-5) heads to William Monroe on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
