Lions reach district final

Stuck in a defensive struggle with undefeated Orange County in the Jefferson District semifinals, Louisa County — as it has all season — just needed some bats to come around.

The Lions put together just three hits in the first seven innings, but strung together four hits and capitalized on two defensive errors in the eighth inning to keep their season alive and shock the Hornets, 4-.

“Josh Vipperman pitched his tail off tonight,” said Louisa coach Kevin Fisher. “We played good defense behind him and that’s all you can ask for. We got the key clutch hits.”

The big rally started with a Jake Holly single with no outs. Holly then reached third on a throwing error and ground out. Chris Bell then drew a walk followed by a Gunnar Carroll single to drive in the go-ahead run.

“Bell did a good job of getting on base,” Carroll said. “I was pretty calm up there just looking for my pitch. Late in the count, I guessed right and put the bat on the ball.”

Louisa (8-9) picked up two more runs of insurance when Christian Oliver was able to drive in a run on an error and Wes Tester brought home another runner with a single.

Vipperman went the distance for Louisa, giving up just six hits, while issuing no walks.

“I just tried to dominate the strike zone like my catcher told me,” Vipperman said. “I sat in there, threw strikes and let the defense play for me.”

While he picked up the loss, D.J. Brown was his usual self on the rubber for the Hornets. The James Madison-bound senior allowed only three hits in his first seven innings while striking out five batters.

“We’re sitting here a little disappointed because we felt like we beat ourselves,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “But we played against a good baseball team that happened to execute on our

mistakes and get some big hits. We didn’t get the hits when we needed them there in the fourth.”

In the bottom of the fourth, a pair of scoring opportunities slipped through the Hornets’ hands when two baserunners were thrown out trying to advance to home — one on a ground ball to short, the other on a pickoff.

The Lions drew first blood in the top of the first off of a Carroll single followed by an Oliver double.

“I felt confidence-wise, scoring early on a good team, that was a good start for us,” Fisher said. “We’re struggling to score runs this year. Getting just one on Brown, that’s pretty good.”

Orange (20-1) answered back in the bottom of the second with a double from Brown and an RBI single from Tres Winkler.

While some believe that a late loss helps a team keep from being complacent, Lohr is not one of them.

“Some people have said this may be the time for a loss to get us refocused,” Lohr said. “I’m the one sitting here saying I want to win every ball game we play. I think this hurts, not to the point that we’ll lose our focus. But then again, if this kind of thing is going happen, we’re glad it happened here so we go to practice and get it back and let this sting a little bit.”

The Lions will travel to Western Albemarle on Thursday in the district championship for a chance to sew up the final Region II berth.

Even with the loss, Orange still holds the top seed in the Region II tournament and will host a first-round game next Wednesday.