By Robert Carter

The North Jefferson News



PLEASANT GROVE — Andrew Busby doesn’t mind a little extra work.

He was catcher for all nine innings of Gardendale’s 6-5 win over Pinson Valley, pitched five innings as the starter in the nightcap against Pleasant Grove, then went back behind the plate again to finish off the 4-3 win over the Tigers, which completed the Rockets’ sweep of an Opening Day tri-series.

Busby had a key put-out of Indians runner Luke Patrick at home plate to keep the game tied at 5-5 in the eighth inning.

In the second game, Busby went five innings, struggling in the fifth when he gave up all three of the Tigers’ runs on two hits, a walk, a hot batsman and an error. It was the only trouble he ran into on the mound, as he dismissed Pleasant Grove with little effort early in his outing.

Busby helped his own cause with a sacrifice fly that scored the Rockets’ first run, then with a double in the fourth inning that plated another run.

In the first game against Pinson, the Rockets jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the third inning when Chase Handley knocked a two-out triple to score Daniel Swann. Handley then scored on a wild pitch.

Gardendale struck again in the fifth when Jeffrey Lankford sent home two runs off a double. Busby added an RBI single in the fifth.

Coach Pat Keedy pulled starter David Roberts out after six innings and inserted reliever Bobby Williams. “I was going to pull him after five [innings], but he had a quick fifth so I left him in,” Keedy said.

But Williams got into quick trouble. He put the first Indians runner on base when he hit Matt Gordon with a pitch. A single advanced him to third, and he scored on a wild pitch.

An error allowed another runner on base, and both runners scored on a pair of singles to tie the game.

The Rockets won it on a run in the ninth that started with a Cody Belcher single. Belcher stole second base, went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Landon Kelley reached on an error by Pinson’s Patrick at shortstop.

The second game was as close, though not quite as frenetic.

Busby’s sacrifice fly got the Rockets on the board in the top of the first, and shortstop Chase Handley posted two more runs when he brought in Swann and Landon Kelley with a double.

Handley scored what proved to be the game-winner when Busby sent him in on a double in the fifth. That run held up through Busby’s rough stretch on the mound in the bottom half of the inning.

“For us to win our first two games that way is amazing,” an elated Keedy said. “It was almost like a little playoff. The intensity was great. That’s going to help us greatly.

“That was fun. We were excited, they were excited. That was big.”

Gardendale (2-0) has its home opener Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against Spain Park.