The Orange County High School varsity baseball team opened its season with a pair of non-district losses last week.
In their season opener a week ago at Porterfield Park, the Hornets rallied for five seventh-inning runs, but it was too little, too late in a 9-6 loss to Chancellor.
The Chargers opened the scoring with three runs in the third on two hits and a pair of Orange errors.
Orange answered in the home half of the inning when Brent Pitts scored after a lead-off walk.
Chancellor scored again in the fifth after two more Orange errors and three more times in the sixth after three more Orange errors.
Trailing 9-1 in the final inning, Orange rallied for five runs with two outs. Brandon Twigg reached on catcher's interference and was driven in by Pitts. Tyler Seal singled in Pitts and Lonnie Dillard and Rahiem Cooper walked. David Dulin singled them in, but Orange couldn't plate anyone else and lost.
Zak Reininger pitched four innings of two-hit, four-strikeout ball, yielding only one earned run. He took the loss. Mitchell King pitched two innings in relief and gave up four runs, with only one earned. Twigg closed out the game, pitching the seventh.
Two nights later, the Hornets traveled to Madison to face the rival Mountaineers.
Orange started strong with four runs in the first after Cooper, Dulin and Reininger singled in succession before Austin Oliver's home run. Unfortunately for the Hornets, the Mountaineers matched Orange's output in the bottom half of the inning and tied the game at 4-4.
Twigg doubled and scored to lead off the second and Reininger singled and scored in the third to give Orange a 6-4 lead. Then the wheels fell off for Orange.
Madison erupted for seven fourth-inning runs to take an 11-4 lead. But the Hornets were not deterred and came back in the fifth to score three more runs. Reininger led off the inning with a triple and Oliver walked. King singled in Reininger and he and Oliver scored to cut the lead to 11-9.
Madison added a late run in the sixth, and shut down the Hornets three-up, three-down in the sixth and seventh innings to preserve the win.
Orange rapped out 11 hits in the loss, with Reininger going 3-4 with three runs scored. King and Jake Koontz each had two hits. Oliver hit a home run and scored twice but was tagged with the loss.
Orange, 0-2, travels to Monticello Friday and hosts Western Albemarle Tuesday in Orange.
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