Hornets seal berth in Group AA tournament

ORANGE – After nine days of waiting, Orange County finally got back on the baseball field Thursday night for its Region II tournament semifinal showdown with Sherando at Porterfield Park, and the Hornets made the most of the opportunity, winning a 4-3 thriller to secure a berth in the Group AA state tournament next week.

With the score tied at 3-3 entering the bottom of the sixth, Orange County (21-1) came up with three hits in the inning to push across the eventual game-winning run. Lazaro Torres lined a single to right field that scored pinch-runner Tyler Seal to punch the Hornets’ ticket to tonight’s Region II championship game.

D.J. Brown, who is used to taking the mound as a starter for OCHS, came out of the bullpen to pitch the sixth and seventh innings in relief of starter Derek Justice. After allowing a leadoff single in the seventh, Brown struck out the next three batters to send the home fans into a frenzy.

The Orange County supporters weren’t so raucous early in the contest. Sherando opened the game by scoring three runs in the top of the first, highlighted by a monstrous two-run home run by Derek Reid.  The shot landed on the top row of the bleachers in the left-centerfield stands and gave the Warriors a 3-0 lead.

If the bomb from Reid affected Justice at all, he didn’t show it. Instead, the junior left-hander settled down and didn’t allow a hit over the next four innings of work while striking out six.

“That home run pushed me to get out there and throw harder and harder because one thing that makes you mad is when teams hit the ball off you,” Justice said of his performance following the first inning.

Orange evened the score in the bottom of the second with five hits in the inning. Torres, Chris Bittner and Cory Schmidt each hit doubles in the inning to help the Hornets even the score at 3-3 and rattle Sherando starter Nick Merchant, who went the distance for the Warriors. Five of Orange’s nine hits on the night game from the bottom three slots in the lineup.

“They’ve done that all year long,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “Cory Schmidt has gotten big hit after big hit and got another one here tonight.”

The win came after a long, nine-day layoff following a loss to Louisa County in the Jefferson District tournament semifinals early last week.

“This was our third game in about 19 days. This time of year, you want to play baseball. All season long, you’ve created a flow of playing two or three games a week and we’ve played one game a week for the last three weeks, so we wanted to get on the field pretty bad,” Lohr said.

After scarcely playing the last few weeks, the Hornets will have a quick turnaround for the Region II tournament championship game. Orange County hosts Potomac Falls tonight at 7 p.m. at Porterfield Park.