Gardendale made their last appearance in the Jefferson County Schools Baseball Championship count.

The Rockets came back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, on their way to a 3-2 win over Pleasant Grove in the finals Friday night at Gardendale.

The Rockets were down 2-1 after a run-scoring double by the Spartans’ DaQuan Johnson, who then scored when Jordan Smith hit into an error.

But shortstop John Michael Mathews tied the game when his line-drive triple to left center field brought in Manning Early from second base. Mathews then scored what proved to be the winning run on a base hit by Brady Sellers.

Early, the lead-off hitter for Gardendale, scored the first run of the game when he got on board with a two-base error in the third inning. He moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on a ground out to second by Zach Cupps.

Rockets pitcher Adam Hulsey struggled somewhat in his start, even though he recorded nine strikeouts in 4-2/3 innings’ work. It was the third time this season that Hulsey has fanned nine or more opposing batters.

Hulsey was relieved by Zach Cupps, who went two more innings before Sellers came in to get the final Spartan out.

Pleasant Grove pitcher Matt White went the distance, giving up just two hits in the loss. He was victimized in part by the Grove’s defensive problems, as they were charged with four errors.

The championship will be the last for the Rockets, as they will break away from the Jefferson County Schools next year.

Corner 8, Mortimer Jordan 4: In the third place game, the Yellow Jackets jumped on the Blue Devils early, scoring all eight of their runs in the first three innings before Jordan could score one of their own.

Kevin Bryant went 3-for-4 at bat with a pair of doubles. He drove in runs in the first two innings, and drove Devils starting pitcher Walker McCleney out of the game.

Devne Daniel hit a double and scored twice for Corner, while Jake Crew and Chris Huff each went 2-for-4 at the plate.

Dillon McCaleb was 3-for-3 and drove in three runs.

Bryant was the winning pitcher, with four strikeouts against one hit and six walks in 3-2/3 innings.

Corner was knocked out of the path to the championship game with a 6-5 loss to Pleasant Grove in eight innings in the semifinals. Matt White’s line drive single to left brought home Seth Grammer from third base with the winning run in the eighth.

Gardendale 6, Mortimer Jordan 5: In the other semifinal game, the Rockets came from behind with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Brady Sellers had two RBIs on a pair of sacrifice flies, and Zach Cupps also had a run-scoring single.

Walker McCleney hit a solo home run and scored three Jordan runs, and Nathan Stover’s double brought home two runs.

Seth Rogers got the win, pitching three innings in relief of starter Drew Love.