Hornets stay perfect in JD

The Western Albemarle and Orange County baseball teams came into Friday night’s showdown in Crozet boasting undefeated records, but after capitalizing on eight Warriors errors, it was the Hornets who managed to keep their perfect season intact with an 8-4 road win.

“Offensively, it wasn’t the prettiest performance,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “But at the end of the night, you’ve got eight runs. In a high school baseball game, you put the ball in play, and it’s not your fault if the other team doesn’t make the play. We got some weak contact at times, and then some big hits late in the seventh to spread the lead out.”

Derek Justice threw five strong innings and struck out 12 Western batters. Justice also provided himself with some offense by knocking in a pair of runs.

“Sometimes when I’m on top of my game, I feel like nobody can really do anything,” Justice said of his performance on the mound. “It’s sort of conceited, but when I’m on, I feel like that.”

The Warriors only got to the lefty in the third inning when Justice allowed three runs on three walks and a pair of hits. Before the third, and very shortly after, Justice plowed through the Western lineup by hammering the strike zone to pick up the dozen strikeouts.

D.J. Brown came out of the bullpen for Orange (11-0, 6-0 Jefferson District) in the sixth inning and struck out four more Western batters to preserve the win and secure sole possession of first place in the district.

For the Warriors (7-1, 4-1), the story was in the stat book. Eight errors, including a very costly pair of throwing errors late in the game with just one run separating the teams, proved to be more than Western could overcome.

“You can’t strike out 16 times and make eight errors and expect to win,” said Western coach Skip Hudgins. “Now, what should happen when that happens is you get slaughter-ruled. We still had a chance in this baseball game until we gave up those two runs in the seventh. That really hurt.”

Both teams will play Fluvanna County in their next games. Orange hosts the Flying Flucos on Tuesday at 7 p.m., while Western will travel to Fluvanna on Wednesday at 7 p.m.