Green Hope designated hitter Brent McLeroy didn’t do anything differently at the plate Friday and had no inkling he was in for a big day.

After his first at-bat yielded a called third strike, the results in his next three trips to the plate couldn’t have been more opposite than the first. McLeroy went 3-for-3 the rest of the afternoon and drove in three runs to key the Falcons’ 10-6 win over Athens Drive.

“It’s probably the best game I’ve had all year,” McLeroy said.

It was among the best his team has played, too. The Falcons belted out 15 hits, and seven different players drove in at least one run.

“This is the first game all year where we really hit the ball,” said Green Hope coach Mike Miragliuolo. “Even our outs were hard hits. Whether they were home runs or some of the other hits we had, we hit the ball hard and enough found holes. I think everybody came out of a slump today.”

Starting pitcher Chris Perry tossed a solid 3.2 innings before giving way to Dylan Kipp, who earned the win after throwing the final 3.1 innings.

After trading the lead twice through the first two innings, Athens tied the game at 3-3 in the third, thanks to a solo home run from Drew Woodall (2-for-3, four RBIs).

Green Hope regained the lead in the fourth thanks to McLeroy’s solo homer that led off the inning.

“It felt good off the bat,” McLeroy said. “I wasn’t looking for a home run. It just kind of happened.”

Three batters later, another one happened.

Nolan Poythress drilled a two-run homer over the left-field fence to give the Falcons a 6-3 advantage.

Green Hope tacked on another run in the fifth. With two outs, McLeroy beat out a routine grounder to keep the inning alive. After advancing to second on a wild pitch, he came in to score on a Jose Nunez single.

Kipp pitched himself into and then out of a jam in the sixth inning. After retiring the first two batters of the inning, he loaded the bases on a single and back-to-back walks. Woodall then crushed a bases-clearing double, trimming Green Hope’s lead to 7-6.

“That’s been a problem for me. I do walk some people sometimes, but I do my best to get out of it, which I kind of did,” Kipp said.

With the tying run at second, Kipp got a strikeout to get out of the inning with his team still in the lead.

And McLeroy picked the Falcons back up in the bottom of the inning when he stroked a two-run double, giving Kipp a little extra breathing room for the seventh.

“It’s nice to respond like that, obviously,” Miragliuolo said. “I thought maybe one more run would be nice, but I felt confident Dylan was going to be fine.”

And Kipp was. He sat down Athens in order in the seventh.

“I knew I didn’t want an inning like the last one, so I stepped up and got them out,” said Kipp, who allowed three runs on two hits and had seven strikeouts and three walks.

Athens Drive coach Joey Bell couldn’t find fault with his team for the loss. The Jaguars had eight hits and had their chances throughout the game to seize control.

“The bottom line is we got hit today,” Bell said. “We hit the ball, but they outhit us. I told them, ‘You got beat today. You didn’t lose.’ There’s nothing to fuss about.”