By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

CHELSEA–The Chelsea Hornets and Helena Huskies met on the diamond for the first time this season on Tuesday, April 3, and thanks to a big fourth inning, the Hornets beat Helena 4-1 in a crucial area game.

Both Chelsea and Helena put two impressive starting pitchers on the mound as Richard Fitts toed the rubber for the Huskies and Brendon Case got the nod for the Hornets.

In this matchup, Case had a sharper outing and also got more help from his offense to record the win. Case pitched five innings and allowed just three hits and one earned run with six strikeouts.

Fitts also had six strikeouts, but allowed 12 hits and finished with four earned runs in the loss.

Helena’s lone run in the game came on a two-out RBI double from John Heacock to score Brody Moss to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning.

The lead was short lived as Chelsea began the bottom of the fourth inning with three straight singles from Will Peacock, William Root and Carter Frederick to load the bases.

Fitts recorded a strike out for the first out of the inning but still faced an uphill battle to get out of the jam.

Just as the inning had begun, the next three Hornet batters hit singles as Nolan Forehand and Will Hayes recorded RBI singles and Clay DeWeese completed the inning with a two-RBI single to make it 4-1 Chelsea.

Despite finishing with just four hits in the game, Helena had its chances for more runs but left eight runners on base.

Cameron Gage came in to pitch the final two innings for Chelsea and allowed just one hit on 28 pitches to shut down Helena and earn the save.

Hayes went 2-for-4 at the plate for Chelsea with one RBI and DeWeese went 1-for-3 with two RBIs.

Heacock was the only player for Helena to finish with multiple hits and an RBI.

After the game, Helena fell to 2-1 in area play as Chelsea improved to 1-0.