Corner’s Jennifer Tolbert races past second base on her way to third, while East Limestone outfielders retrieve her drive down the right field line. Tolbert reached third with a lead-off triple.

Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



CORNER — The old adage that good pitching stops good hitting rang true in Corner on Saturday, as two Top 10, Class 4A clubs batted each other in the second round of the sub-state playoffs. Each of the games in the best-of-three series featured a shutout thrown by the winning pitcher. Unfortunately for East Limestone, Corner senior Elizabeth Allred shut out the Lady Indians twice, allowing only four singles over 14 innings of work.

“I think we did pretty well today,” Allred said. “I think intensity played a big part in how I pitched today. Our seniors had a lot of intensity and determination to get back to the state tournament again. I wanted to make sure I could do everything I could to make sure we got back there.”

Allred struck out six and walked none and allowed only two hits in the Lady Yellow Jackets (39-15), 4-0 win in game one of the series. Then after East Limestone forced third game with a 3-0 win in the second contest, Allred came back and threw another two-hitter, as Corner was the decisive game, 2-0.

In the opening game, the Corner offense got off to a fast start when junior center fielder Jennifer Tolbert tripled down the right field line to lead off the home-half of the first inning. Tolbert then scored on the next pitch as Kortney Sloan drove a deep sacrifice fly to left field.

In the second inning, the Lady Jackets added three more runs. Heather Anderson led off the inning and reached on an error. She moved to second on Lindsay Cannon’s sacrifice bunt. Meg Adams then reached on an error, which allowed the second Corner run to score. One out later, Sloan doubled to the gap in right center scoring Adams.

Sloan then moved to third on the throw attempt home to get Adams, Sloan came home when Mandy Slatton reached base on the third throwing error by the Lady Indians in the inning.

With the 4-0 lead, Allred set down 10 straight batters, until allowing a single with one out in the fifth inning.

However, she finished strong as she retired eight of the last nine East Limestone batters.

In the third game, both teams couldn’t advance a runner past second base until the home-half of the sixth inning, when the Lady Jackets broke through with two runs. Preslie Cruce had an RBI, when she was hit by a pitch and then Heather Anderson followed with an RBI-single.

The two runs were all Allred needed, as she finish off her second shutout of the day to improve to 20-8 this season.