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The Huntland High School Hornets lost to the Richland Raiders 8-2 at home Monday for their third loss of the season.

The Hornets took an early lead in the district contest, but the Raiders flipped the scoreboard in the top of the fifth and pulled away from Huntland in the final two innings.

Huntland head baseball coach Brent Davis said that leadoff walks drawn by Richland and poor offensive luck hurt his team’s chances to win throughout the day.

“We managed to get out of several innings after giving up a leadoff walk, but that eventually comes back to get you. They’re not a bad baseball team, and they took advantage of some of the things we gave them,” he said before referring to his team’s offensive performance. “We hit the ball well. We just hit it right at them, and we just told them you’re going to have games like that where stuff doesn’t fall. We were barreling it up, but it was just line drives to the outfielders. It’s part of baseball.”

The Hornets scored both of their runs for the contest in the bottom of the first as RBI singles from Carson Riley and Caleb Maxwell gave them an early 2-0 advantage.

The Raiders got on the board in the top of the third as they loaded the bases on a fielding error, a walk and a bunt single before the lead runner scored on an RBI infield single to make it a 2-1 game.

The Raiders then took the lead in the top of the fifth as a two-out, two-run single put the Hornets behind by a 3-2 margin.

The Raiders went on to score two more runs in the sixth inning and three in the seventh to push the deficit up to 8-2 in the final inning.

The Hornets weren’t able to respond offensively in the bottom of the seventh as they lost by six.

Eli Fitch pitched the first 5 2-3 innings for the Hornets with two strikeouts, seven hits, six walks, four earned runs and one unearned run allowed for the day.

Caleb Maxwell recorded one out in relief with one hit, one walk, one earned run and two unearned runs allowed.

Kasen Kildoo pitched a scoreless inning in relief with two hits allowed.

With the loss, the Hornets moved to 11-3 on the season and 2-1 in district play.

They will next play Tuesday at Richland High School. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.