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The Huntland High School Hornets lost to the Rockford Christian Royal Lions 6-1 at Tullahoma Thursday in their first game for the Viking Classic.

The Hornets fell behind by a decent margin in the middle innings of the contest and weren’t able to mount a comeback as they took their first loss of the overall season.

Huntland head baseball coach Brent Davis said that a series of errors put his team in a hole that they weren’t able to work out of against a quality opponent.

“I just don’t think they showed up to play,” he said, referring to his players. “(Rockford) outplayed us today. We had some mistakes in the field in the field that are uncharacteristic, and we’ve got to clean those up if we’re going to beat good teams.”

The leadoff batter for the Royal Lions hit a triple in the bottom of the first and was driven home by an RBI single a few batters later to make it a 1-0 game early.

The Hornets got on the board in the top of the third as Tyler Guess drew a walk, moved up to second off of an error on a ball hit by Kingston Maxwell, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Grant Jernigan and raced home following a throwing error on a pickoff attempt to tie the score at 1-1.

However, the Royal Lions capitalized on a trio of Huntland errors in the bottom of the third to score four runs in the frame and retake the lead at 5-1.

The Hornets recorded their only two hits for the day in the top of the fourth as Kasen Kildoo and Parker Schultz hit consecutive two-out singles, but a flyout then ended the inning and stranded both runners.

The Royal Lions scored one more run in the bottom of the fourth to bring the overall deficit up to 6-1.

The Hornets put a few runners on base in the top of the sixth as Caleb Maxwell got hit by a pitch and Bryant Mooney drew a walk, but an infield fly and two strikeouts ended the inning, and the game hit its time limit before the bottom of the sixth could begin as the Hornets lost by five.

Caleb Maxwell pitched the first three innings for the Hornets with six strikeouts, three hits, four walks, one earned run and four unearned runs allowed for the day.

Kildoo pitched two innings in relief with three strikeouts, one hit, one walk and one run allowed.

With the loss, the Hornets moved to 9-1 on the season.

They will next play Friday against Heritage Christian Academy at Tullahoma in a game for the Viking Classic. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.