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  • Athens junior pitcher Luke Solomon fires to the plate during Thursday’s win over Quinlan Ford. Jayson Larson/Athens Review

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March 11, 2010

2010 HORNET VARSITY BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: Rocky roll

Hornets overcome early struggles to rally past Quinlan Ford, 5-2

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

ATHENS — If the Athens Hornets still had Tuesday’s no-hitter over the Quinlan Ford Panthers on their mind Thursday, the memory probably faded pretty quick.

Like, say, when the Panthers took a first-inning 2-0 lead.

But the Hornets (5-3) used a nice recovery by starting pitcher Luke Solomon and a little timely hitting en route to a 5-2 win over the Panthers during first-round action of the 2010 Hornet Varsity Baseball Tournament at Hornet Field.

“At the plate, they pretty much had us off balance,” Athens Head Coach Tony Sikes said. “But we had a couple of pretty good sticks come through here and there. It goes to show you, if you let a team hang around, you never know what can happen.”

The big sticks came from Matt Jordan and Morgan Sellers, who each hit home runs in the third inning to give the Hornets the lead. Jordan’s line-drive laser over the wall in left-center, off Panther starter Nick Perry, gave the Hornets a 3-2 lead. Sellers hit a solo shot.

It was Jordan’s third dinger of the season — matching his season total from all of last year — and Sellers’ second blast. Jordan also threw out a pair of runners, one trying to steal second and another who wandered too far off first.

Solomon, a junior, got the win despite a rocky start. He gave up a pair of first-inning runs on three hits — including a mammoth double to deep centerfield off the bat of Tye Dyess. Dyess moved to third on a single by Justin Bingham and scored the game’s first run on a wild pitch. The Panthers (2-6) got their second run on Kyle Stone’s RBI single. Solomon struck out the No. 8 hitter, Brandon Murphy, to end the inning.

The Hornets cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first when Jack Barkley singled and scored on Solomon’s grounder that ended up as an error. They missed a chance at a bigger inning when courtesy runner Ryan Hornsby was picked off first, but that miscue was forgotten the three-run third.

Solomon ended up with a complete game and eight strikeouts.

Barkley, Jordan and Carson Hutson had two hits each. Hunter Choate, and Oscar Valdez also collected hits.

The Hornets play their second-round tournament game today at 5:45 p.m. against the Eustace Bulldogs — a 4-3 winner in eight innings over the Crandall Pirates.

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