COAL GROVE - The expiration date must have been May 4. That's when the Coal Grove Hornets played spoiler.

Behind the four-hit pitching of Tommy Pemberton, the Hornets beat the South Point Pointers Tuesday 7-1 and virtually spoiled South Point's Ohio Valley Conference championship hopes.

South Point is 9-10 overall and 6-3 in the league. Coal Grove improved to 6-9 on the season and 3-6 in the conference.

Pemberton struck out eight and walked one in going the distance. The only run was unearned.

"Tommy threw pretty well again. He threw better as the game went along," Hornets coach John Jones said.

"We scored all our runs the first two innings, but we hit the ball hard all night. They made some great defensive plays or we would have scored more."

Coal Grove erupted for five runs in the first inning against starter and losing pitcher Seth Craft.

Randy Wise and Luke Tackett singled, Pemberton walked to load the bases. Nick Bazell was hit by a pitch to force home a run. Patrick Roush singled in a run, Andrew Johnson was hit by a pitch to score a run, Aaron Abt singled in a run and Roush scored on a wild pitch.

The Hornets got two more runs in the second inning.

Tackett singled, Pemberton walked, and Bazell was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Johnson singled in a run and Zach Huber had a two-out infield hit to score Pemberton.

The Pointers got their only run in the third inning.

Corey Smoot singled, moved up on a passed ball, and came around to score on a hit by Wes Patterson.

The Hornets host Portsmouth Wednesday and River Valley Monday.

South Point0010000-140

Coal Grove520000x-763

Seth Craft, Justin Smith (2) and Dale Kinney. Tommy Pemberton and Nick Bazell. W-Pemberton (8-K, 1-W, 0-ER). L-Craft (3-K, 3-W, 3-HBP, 7-ER). 2B-South Point: Dale Kinney. Hitting-South Point: Dale Kinney 1-3, Wes Patterson 1-3, Seth Craft 1-3, Corey Smoot 1-3; Coal Grove: Luke Tackett 1-3, Tommy Pemberton 1-3, Patrick Roush 1-3, Andrew Johnson 1-2, Aaron Abt 1-2, Zach Huber 1-3.