It shows up as just another game in the Class 4A Area 8 standings, but the historical significance of playing on the same field as Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron, Dizzy Dean and countless other baseball legends was not lost on the teenagers wearing Corner High uniforms.

And on Tuesday afternoon, they made a little bit of history of their own, as they survived a late scare from Ramsay to win 6-4, and punch their ticket to the AHSAA playoffs in about a week.

“The kids love to play here,” Yellow Jackets coach Steve Kelley said of the 95-year-old landmark, the oldest park in the nation that’s still used for professional baseball (the Birmingham Barons’ annual Rickwood Classic). “And they’ve never lost a game here.”

A stark reminder of how physical the game can be came in the first inning, when Rams’ starting pitcher Darryl Dunbar took a Jordan Shipp line drive off his glove and straight into his mouth. The drive took out at least four teeth and caused considerable blood loss. Dunbar had to be rushed into oral surgery, where he was recovering at press time.

Reliever Ryan Clayton-Brown’s much lower velocity crossed up Corner batters at first, but they honed in on it later.

Corner scored in the second inning off a Bryant Payne single, but Dedrick Belcher responded in the bottom of the inning with a double, then scored on an error.

The Jackets (12-11, 4-2 area) came back with a run off a Nick Webb sacrifice fly in the third, then tacked on two more runs in the fifth, when Webb’s hit drove in Jack Robbins, and then Webb scored on another Ramsay error.

The Jackets put up two more in the sixth, when relief pitcher Blake Howard — brought in when starter Jake Eiland’s arm became sore in the fifth inning — reached on an error, stole second, then scored on two successive Ramsay errors. Jared Humphrey then scored on Eiland’s single.

The Rams put a scare into Kelley’s squad when the first two batters reached base on a hit and an error, then scored on Norris Strickland’s double. Strickland came in on a Lee Devance single, but Howard ended the game when he got Travell Sharp to ground out to second.

Howard got the three-inning save and struck out five Rams. Eiland, the winning pitcher, struck out three and gave up just two hits.

Corner finishes second in the area behind Oak Grove, and will face Area 7 champion Bibb County in the first round of the playoffs.