The Huntland High School Hornets beat the Cornersville Bulldogs 3-2 in nine innings on the road Thursday for their second win of the season.
The Hornets saw a two-run lead disappear in the bottom of the seventh, but they regrouped to take the lead once more in extra innings for a narrow victory.
Huntland head baseball coach Brent Davis praised his pitchers for the day with Daltyn Howell, Caleb Maxwell and Blaine Counts combining to allow just two unearned runs.
“Our pitching was really good today. They didn’t allow any runs until the seventh, and that wasn’t on the pitching,” he said, referring to errors that allowed the two Cornersville runs for the contest to score. “They did exactly what we asked them to do.”
Davis also said that he was proud of his team for bouncing back from the late blown lead and pulling out a close win.
“They didn’t give up. They stayed with us,” he said. “It’s still early in the season, so it’s good for confidence to win a close game like this. I feel like some of these games that are closer like this are going to play into district victories in the future.”
The Hornets loaded the bases with one out in the top of the second as Carter Walker and Landon Kerr both hit singles and Counts drew a walk, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the scoring threat with all three runners being stranded.
The Hornets created another bases-loaded situation in the top of the fifth as Grant Jernigan got hit by a pitch, Howell drew a walk and Walker hit a single with nobody out.
Matthew Dickson and Kerr then hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to bring home Jernigan and Howell and give the Hornets a late 2-0 lead.
With the score still at 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh, the Bulldogs had their leadoff hitter for the inning reach base on a single, and a throwing error with two outs put runners at second and third base.
The Bulldogs capitalized on the extra chance given to them by the error as their next batter tied the game with a two-run single, and the batter advanced to third base on the same play after an error in the outfield.
The Hornets were able to avoid a walk-off situation, however, as the next Cornersville batter lined out to send the game into extra innings.
The first batter for Cornersville in the bottom of the eighth was hit by a pitch and later stole second base to move into scoring position as the potential winning run.
However, Howell, after being moved to shortstop following his start on the mound, snagged a two-out line drive to strand the runner and keep the game alive.
The Hornets broke the tie in the top of the ninth as Dickson hit a two-out double and came around to score a few pitches later off of an error on a ball hit by Kerr.
After the first two batters for the Bulldogs in the bottom of the ninth were retired with a flyout and a groundout, respectively, the next batter drew a walk and moved to second base on a wild pitch.
The runner moved up to third base on another wild pitch with Huntland catcher Keller overthrowing the third basemen on the play.
The runner then attempted to capitalize and sprint home, but left fielder Maxwell delivered an on-target throw to the plate, and Keller applied the tag to record the final out and clinch the one-run victory.
Howell pitched the first five innings for the Hornets with six strikeouts, two hits, two walks and no runs allowed.
Maxwell came out of the bullpen for the next two innings with three hits and two unearned runs allowed for the contest.
Counts pitched the final two innings for Huntland with two strikeouts, no hits, one walk and no runs allowed to get the victory.
With the win, the Hornets improved to 2-1 on the season.
They will next play Monday at home against Cascade High School. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
