Hornets Drown Seahawks in Downpour

Wednesday's threatenting forecast forced South Lakes and Herndon to move the start time of their baseball game up an hour in an effort to fit in all seven innings.

Only four-and-a-half innings were necessary, as Herndon scored 17 runs in the first inning and pounded out 23 hits in a dominant 20-1 slaughter-rule win.

The Seahawks' starting pitcher was pulled after one-third of an inning after giving up six earned runs, bit it didn't matter who stood on the mound for South Lakes. Herndon batted around three times before the opening frame mericfully came to an end.

“The thing we get excited about is quality at bats and I think we had nine or ten quality at bats in a row,” Herndon Coach Gregory Miller said.

Most of the hitters in Herndon’s lineup had at least two hits including Addison Wright, who knocked a 370-foot bomb over the left-center field fence in the bottom of the second to stretch the lead to 18-1.

Matt Smith’s bat was also on fire as he had a triple, three singles and six RBI. He said he had never been a part of a first inning like Wednesday’s.

“It just seemed like everything was falling our way,” Smith said. “Balls were dropping, and we were hitting barrel on the ball and finding grass."

Tyler Reif pitched brilliantly for the Hornets for three innings. He struck out three and gave up only one hit—a solo home run in the top of the second to Nick Beaulac for the Seahawks' only run of the game.

“My coach just tells me to go out there, pound the zone, throw some strikes, keep my off-speed down,” Reif said. “It is just good pitch calling from Coach Coghlan. He does a great job with all the pitchers and catchers, keeping us in the game.”

Miller said he was impressed with his team’s performance and believes his star pitcher is something special.

“[Reif] is not overpowering by any means but he can locate, and when he gets all three of pitches going, he’s tough,” Miller said. “We’re kind of hoping he’s going to be our No. 1 for us and we're expecting big things from him.”

On a positive note for the Seahawks, Beaulac had a stellar evening in the infield as well as at the plate. He closed out the third inning at second base when he snagged a line drive over his head and landed on the bag for the unassisted double play.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on both offensively and defensively. We weren’t able to get runners in when we had them on base,” Beaulac said. “We just have to string the hits together and work as a team. I think by then we will be able to put some wins together.” 

South Lakes Coach Galvin Morris said it was just a bad night, and his players will put the game out of their heads quickly.

“It was just one of those old fashioned butt whippings, and nothing went right our way,” Morris said. “We just have to work harder to get better. If we work harder and play with more confidence, we will be alright.”

Herndon plays at Loudoun Valley at 6 p.m. on April 1, while South Lakes will play at Thomas Jefferson on April 1 at 6:30 p.m.