CHATSWORTH, Ga. — After a tough four weeks of dealing with damage to their home field from a tornado and playing on the road, the members of the Murray County High School baseball team were looking forward to a much-needed homecoming Tuesday night.

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe didn’t make the experience very enjoyable, however, as the Warriors shut out Murray County 7-0.

“It feels good to be back here at our own stadium, but we just didn’t get it done tonight,” Murray County junior Preston VanMeter said. “We had a lot of road games and it’s good to get to come back and be in front of your home crowd and not have to ride a bus. But I just wish we had played better.”

The Indians (7-11, 4-3 Region 6-3A) hadn’t played a home baseball game since a tornado damaged several parts of their field and stadium on March 1. The storm destroyed metal bleachers, knocked down large portions of the outfield fence, damaged several buildings and even brought down a portion of a concrete wall that ran from behind home plate to the home dugout down the third base line.

With the help of several entities, the high school was able to repair the damage enough to host its first game just 27 days later.

“We are super excited about being back here,” athletic director Greg Linder said. “It was a big effort between the school system and county government to make it where we could play on this date. The contractors really went out of their way to make sure they could get things done as quickly as possible.

“It started with our parents being helpful, and the outpouring of support from other schools was tremendous, with North Murray letting us play on their field and other schools both in and out of our region offering to help. It says a lot, when you have team sports that are competitive, but at the same time people wanting to help out. It shows what sports is all about.”

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (9-9, 2-5) didn’t waste any time spoiling the homecoming as the Warriors scored five runs in the top of the first inning. After LFO loaded the bases, Logan Gruetter cleared them with a 3-RBI double to left-center field, then Jarrett McAfee launched a two-run home run over the center-field wall.

The Warriors added a run with consecutive doubles by Jackson Herrod and Garren Mauldin to open the fourth, while the seventh run came on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Brock two batters later. VanMeter got the start for the Indians and allowed all seven runs on seven hits and three walks with two strikeouts in three innings.

The Indians couldn’t get going at the plate as VanMeter had Murray County’s only two hits. Eight Indians reached base by either a walk or a hit-by-pitch, but Gruetter was able to induce ground balls at an effective rate to get out of jams, including three ground balls which led to double plays.

“It felt good to be back at home but it’s hard to think about right now,” Murray County coach Kim Alderdice said. “I think it will be better tomorrow but it was just really disappointing to come out so flat. The kids looked OK and felt OK, and everything (before the game) felt like the last four games. But then we threw up a mess in the first inning. After that we were OK, but if you don’t score you don’t win.”

Murray County will go back on the road at Ringgold on Thursday at 5:55 p.m. before returning home to host North Murray on Friday at 5:55 p.m.