Huntland's Matthew Dickson connects on a pitch during a game Wednesday against Moore County High School. Dickson had a double and an RBI in the 6-2 loss.
Huntland's Matthew Dickson connects on a pitch during a game Wednesday against Moore County High School. Dickson had a double and an RBI in the 6-2 loss.
The Huntland High School Hornets lost to the Moore County Raiders 6-2 at home Wednesday in a first-round game for the District 9A tournament.
The third-seeded Raiders took the lead in the third inning and pulled away in the seventh with the second-seeded Hornets not being able to answer back late in the postseason matchup.
Huntland head baseball coach Brent Davis said that his players struggled in the field and at the plate in the contest, and they will need to regroup quickly with the season now on the line for their next game.
“We just didn’t show up ready to play. After the game, we just talked to them to get their heads back up,” he said before summarizing his message to the team. “This one’s done. Go win tomorrow, win Friday and see where we can go from there.”
The Raiders put up a pair of runs in the top of the first on an RBI double and a throwing error to take an early 2-0 lead.
However, the Hornets were able to respond in the bottom of the first as an error on a ball hit by Daltyn Howell allowed Evan Keller to score, and an RBI double from Matthew Dickson brought Howell home to tie the game at 2-2.
The Raiders retook the lead in the top of the third with a leadoff double producing a baserunner who ultimately came around to score on a two-out RBI single to put the Hornets in a 3-2 hole.
Moore County pitcher Jace Long retired 12 straight Huntland batters from the bottom of the first onward until Keller broke up that streak with a two-out double in the bottom of the fifth, but a strikeout to the next batter kept Keller from advancing any further.
The Raiders pushed three more runs across the plate in the top of the seventh to grow the deficit to 6-2 going into the final half-inning, and the Hornets were retired in order in the bottom of the seventh as they lost by four.
Howell pitched the first 6 2-3 innings for the Hornets with seven strikeouts, 10 hits, two walks, five earned runs and one unearned run allowed.
Blaine Counts pitched to one batter in relief and induced a lineout to end the top of the seventh.
With the loss, the Hornets moved to 9-10 on the season.
They will next play Thursday against Fayetteville City High School at Eagleville in an elimination game for the District 9A tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
