Orange breaks out brooms

There was not a broom in sight. There should have been.

Without assistant coach Karl Kuhn, the team’s skipper, there to steer the ship due to a recruiting venture, the Orange team completed a sweep of the first three-game set with a 6-5 victory in the Orange and Blue World Series.

It was the bottom of the lineup that produced the production for the Orange team, which won the opener 7-4 and the second game 9-2.

Jared King, who played first base for the Orange team, went 3 for 3 and scored three runs.

“I just tried to relax and not think too much,” King said. “I guess I was seeing it well and not trying to do too much with it. I was just trying to hit the ball.”

While the pressure has mounted on the Blue team to win the second three-game series, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor was pleased with the back-and-forth nature of the game.

“It was a good, competitive game and that’s what we want,” he said. “It really was a competitive game, perhaps the best so far.”

The contest had its rare moments, including pitching performances from catcher John Hicks and infielder Corey Hunt.

“We got to see some guys on the mound that don’t traditionally pitch for us,” O’Connor said with a smile. “We found out that one guy can’t do it and one guy might be able to.”

Hicks, standing close by, admitted that he had not pitched since he was 11. He allowed two hits and an earned run in relief for the Orange team.

The teams will return to action on Tuesday at 6 p.m.