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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Chelsea Hornets picked up a pair of county wins over the Briarwood Christian Lions, first in a 7-0 shutout win at home on Wednesday, March 6 and then a tight 2-1 victory on the road on Thursday, March 7.

In their first matchup at Chelsea High School, the Hornets took advantage of a complete game no-hitter by Logan Moller to earn the victory.

Moller went seven innings, earning nine strikeouts while allowing just one walk against no hits or runs.

The Lions loaded up the bases in the bottom of the first with two walks and a hit by pitch, and Chelsea grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored the opening run of the game.

That 1-0 Hornets lead held until the bottom of the fourth when they piled on four runs to the lead.

After a hit by pitch to start the inning, Jackson Price hit a one-out double to score Paxton Stallings and extend the lead to two.

A walk and an error loaded up the bases, and after a Mack Breazeale walk and an error during Chase Lackey’s at-bat, the lead stood at four runs.

Briarwood managed to get an out on the next at-bat, but another bases loaded walk put the Hornets up 5-0 at the end of the fourth.

A similar situation happened in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Lions walked the opening two batters. After a pitching change, Brett Hackett bunted on his at-bat, leading to a Briarwood error that scored the sixth run of the game.

The next batter Ethan Prickett hit into a sacrifice fly for the final run of the game as Chelsea earned the 7-0 win.

After the scene shifted to Briarwood the day after, it was the Lions that scored first.

With two outs and Will Clark on second base in the bottom of the first, an error allowed Parker Daniels to reach base and Clark to cross home plate, putting Briarwood up 1-0.

That lead held until the top of the third when the Hornets got out of a two-out hole of their own.

With Miller Bauman on third, Lackey hit an RBI single to bring him home and tie the game at 1-1.

After a scoreless fourth and fifth innings, Lackey walked to start the top of the sixth and put a runner on base.

While the Lions got the next two outs from a sacrifice bunt and a fly out, Caden Mims came up clutch with a 3-2 triple to score the go-ahead run.

From there, Chelsea saw out the 2-1 victory to improve to 9-5 on the season.

Lackey went 2-3 with a walk, a run and an RBI to lead the way for the Hornets offense.

Mims took the win on the mound with 2.1 innings of relief. He didn’t allow a single hit or run, taking three strikeouts against one walk. Stallings recorded seven strikeouts across 4.2 innings in a no decision outing.