Andalusia suffered its third area loss Thursday night to Clarke County in Andalusia falling 5-2.

Dre Love was the winning pitcher for Clarke County. Love pitched 7.0 innings, allowing six hits, two runs, three walks and striking out six batters.

“We got a great pitching performance from Dre (Love) and he kept us in it,” Clarke County coach Chris Young said. “(Andalusia) was right there too. Their guy did a great job. Five-to-two, that says it all — a close game all the way through. We got a couple of big hits when we needed to and that was the difference.”

Clarke County shot out to a 2-0 lead at the top of the second inning when Justin Robinson scored on a passed ball and Dre Love scored on a sacrifice fly from Zack Watford.

Andalusia answered in the bottom of the second when Aaron Norris knocked an RBI single to score courtesy runner Leslie James.

Clarke County would add an additional two runs in the third inning when Chris Andrews and Watford both hit an RBI single apiece to score Robinson and Love.

Andalusia coach Jonathan Rasberry said Clarke County’s hitting was the difference in the ball game.

“The big thing was that I knew that Clarke County was a big hitting baseball team and I knew they were going to throw their lefty and he’s a tenth grader,” Rasberry said. “He had a really good arm and I thought we had a good approach at the plate for the most part. ”

The visiting Bulldogs’ last run came in the fifth inning off an RBI single from Will Wiggins that brought Dre Love home.

Andalusia (11-14, 2-3 in Class 4A, Area 3) will play Clarke County (16-10) tonight in a doubleheader.

Young said as far as hit team is concerned, the season is not over yet.

“The pressure is off as far as being in the playoffs, but we’ve got a lot of pressure on us to win the area,” Young said. “So, we’ve got to go out and play and we can’t be satisfied yet.”

Andalusia scored its last run in the seventh when Nate Mack tagged up at third to score on a pop fly from Lee Enzor.

Rasberry said the game tonight will be treated like any other game.

“We’re not going to go over there to do anything else but win,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll come out of there with a win for the last game of the season.”

Clarke County’s Tyler Walker was 2-for-3 with two singles; Justin Robinson was 2-for-4 with one single and one double; Dre Love was 2-for-4 with two singles, one walk and three runs; Chris Andrews was 1-for-4 with one single and one RBI; Zack Watford was 1-for-4 with one single and one RBI; and Will Wiggins was 1-for-3 with one single and one RBI.

Andalusia’s Lee Enzor was 1-for-4 with one single and one RBI; Aaron Norris was 1-for-3 with one single and one RBI.

Andalusia’s Marcus Ingram received the loss. Ingram pitched 7.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, five runs, three walks and striking out four batters.

The games tonight in Clarke County will begin at 4:30 p.m.