With the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs only a week away, Dallas County is playing some of its best baseball of the year.

The Hornets lost a hard fought battle against No. 4 Maplesville 2-1 Thursday night, but it didn’t put a damper on what has been a tremendous last several weeks. Dallas County (10-10) blew out Isabella Wednesday in two games and clinched its first playoff spot in three years last week with wins over Wilcox Central.

Delando Atcheson threw a no-hitter and 15 strikeouts in one of last week’s wins.

“I’m ecstatic for the kids,” said Hornets head coach Cody Massey. “They worked their butt off for it. We don’t have the best of the facilities and things like that that some of these other schools have but the kids their attitudes are changing. Tonight was a good example … we controlled the tempo until the very end.”

Dallas County took a 1-0 lead Thursday on a walk that scored Henry Baker. The Hornets missed a chance to retake the lead in the top of the seventh, and it proved costly as Maplesville won the game in the final inning.

“We didn’t execute a squeeze play in the top of the seventh that would’ve put us up 2-1,” Massey said. “It didn’t lose the game for us, but it was a big momentum turn to give them some momentum and take a little bit away from us going into the last inning.”

Dallas County will face the winner of ACA or Marbury on the road next Friday in the AHSAA playoffs. ACA and Marbury played the final games of a three-game series Thursday night. As of press time, the scores from those games were not available.