Sports

The Copperheads jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Matt Borgschulte singled into the outfield and brought home Joe Sturino, who doubled earlier in the inning. Borgschulte got his third RBI of the day, recording two in the first game of the doubleheader.

 

Unfortunately the Hustlers came right back, scoring a pair of runs to take back the lead in the first.

 

Joe Wahl was on the mound for the Copperheads and ended up with a bases loaded jam.

 

Unlike the first game, the Copperheads weren’t able to get out of the bad situation.

 

Sam Kidd recorded an RBI single and Steve Ferraro walked on four pitches to give Lexington two early runs in the game. 

 

Wahl only surrendered two however, and in fact was able to shut down the Hustlers until late in the third inning. Chase Greenwell singled to left and Dalton Henzman added some insurance with a homerun over the centerfield wall, giving the Hustlers a 4-1 lead. 

 

“[Wahl is] obviously going to probably want a different result. I know he’s battling a little back (injury) but he gutted it out,” head coach Chris Moore said. “He had that grit that defines guys and I thought that was fantastic. He really just had that one bad pitch. He showed me a lot of character today.”

 

On the other side, Lexington pitcher Jordan Cooper shut down the Copperheads offense and ruined any hopes of making a comeback. Cooper struck out six in six innings of work.

 

“They had a guy on the mound who did a good job of making pitches when he needed to,” Moore added.

 

Reliever James Range came into the game for the Copperheads in the sixth and allowed two runs to increase the deficit. Taylor Rozier hit a two RBI double to make it 6-1 and really give the Hustlers a comfortable lead.

 

Even facing new pitchers didn’t help the Copperheads offense, as Lexington pitcher Austin Clay retired the Cheads 1-2-3 in the seventh inning, and Matt Miller shut down the Copperheads in the 8th with relative ease.

 

The Copperheads wouldn’t comeback and ended up losing 6-1. They split the double header and will play a double header again against the Lake Erie Monarchs Monday at home.