By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



The game between Corner and Gardendale, Monday night, was on the line. The scored was tied at 4-all, in the home half of the seventh inning, when Gardendale second baseman Kellie Johnson came to the plate.

With two Lady Rockets on, including one runner on third, Gardendale head coach Brad Myrick had considered using the suicide squeeze play, but he reconsidered and let Johnson hit away. He sure was glad he did as Johnson smashed a drive over the fence in right center for a three-run walk-off homer to give Gardendale (11-8) a 7-4 victory.

“I was looking for something in the strike zone and I wanted to put the ball in play,” Johnson said. “I knew there were two outs and I just wanted to get a base hit, so we wouldn’t have to go extra innings.”

“Kellie had hit the ball pretty good earlier in the game, so I thought I’d let her hit and she came up big with the homer,” Myrick said. “The ball was carrying tonight. They hit one homer and we hit two.” Corner had an early lead, but the Lady Rockets responded with a four-run rally. Kaitlyn Casaday reached on an error and then scored when Kendall Thomas hit her third home run of the season. Lindsey Blakey and Johnson then singled and came home on catcher Taylor Powell’s triple, which chased Corner starer Heather Anderson. Elizabeth Allred replaced Anderson and shut down Gardendale the rest of the way until the final inning.

In the sixth inning, Corner senior Haley Anderson tied the game at 4-all with a solo home run.

Katie Argent (4-1), who gave up two early runs, picked up the win for the Lady Rockets as she threw a complete game five-hitter, struck out three and walked three. All four Corner runs were earned.

For Gardendale, Johnson went 3-for-4. Thomas went 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs. Blakey went 2-for-2.

For Corner (20-9), Jennifer Tolbert went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored.

Anderson went 2-for-3 with a double and a homer. Kortney Sloan had one hit, one run scored and added one RBI.

Also for Corner, Preslie Cruce walked and scored one run.