Gardendale senior Michael Crowder tossed seven innings against Homewood on Friday, allowing one run to go with five strikeouts. 

Baseball season is over for the Gardendale Rockets.

Runs and hits were hard to find on Friday night in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs, as No. 8 Homewood swept the maroon and white in two games, holding them to three total runs on six total hits. Gardendale’s season closes out with a record of 21-11 while the Patriots (29-9) charge on to the third round, likely opposite No. 2 Cullman.

Game 1: Homewood 2, Gardendale 1 (8 innings) 

Homewood scored one in the fourth and another in the eighth and that’s all the visitors would need to earn right-hander Justin Perreault the win. The junior threw 119 pitches in eight innings, holding the Rockets to one run on four hits to go with six strikeouts. 

His competition—Gardendale senior Michael Crowder—wasn’t shabby either, allowing one run on eight hits and five strikeouts in seven innings of work. Crowder worked out of trouble in nearly every inning and went on to strand 10 Patriot runners on base. 

Junior Hunter Stokes checked in to throw in the eighth and walked in the go-ahead run.

Gardendale evened things up at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh when Austin Burdette led off and reached on a fielding error. Keegan Hudson checked in to run and made his way around to third on back-to-back bunt singles from David Harris and Colt Belcher. No. 9 hitter Isic Sims then lifted a sacrifice fly into left field to even things up for a moment. 

The Rockets left runners on second and third thanks to a strikeout and a groundout, which slid their efforts to 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H
HWD	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	10
GHS	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4

Game 2: Homewood 12, Gardendale 2 (5 innings)

Homewood scored six runs in the third and lefty Hunter Keim tossed a complete game two-hitter to lift the Patriots to a 12-2 win in five innings. 

For Homewood, Ben Teel drove in four runs on two doubles and Evan Lemak slapped three runs in on two hits to go with a three-run blast off the bat of Sam Dantone. 

Gardendale threw four different pitchers. Together, they allowed the visitors to swing 6 for 8 with runners in scoring position. 

The Rockets did grab a 2-0 lead in the second thanks to Colt Belcher’s sac fly and a runner interference call. 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
GHS	0	2	0	0	0	–	–	2	2	0
HWD	0	0	6	2	4	–	–	12	7	2

 

Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.