BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Addyson Hinds hit a walkoff home run to give Bradford High School’s softball team a 5-3 win over visiting Union County on April 18.
Hinds, who homered for the second straight game, had a full count with a runner on and one out when she drove a pitch over the fence in left field.
Rylie Blankenship pitched a complete game for the Tornadoes (7-13). She walked just one batter and allowed seven hits, with only two of those hits occurring in the final four innings.
The Tigers (10-8), who saw their six-game winning streak come to an end, took a 2-0 lead early.
Union had two outs and nobody on in the top of the first when Mackenzie Orton hit a single and advanced to second on an error. Shyla Crowe followed with another single, with Bradford again committing an error on the play. Orton scored to put the Tigers up 1-0.
Jaydin Alvarez hit a two-out double for the Tigers in the second, but the Tornadoes got out of the inning on a pop-up to shortstop Keegan Yowell.
Emma Handley led off Union’s half of the third with a single. Orton later drew a one-out walk before Crowe hit a line drive that hit Blankenship. Handley scored on the play for a 2-0 Tigers lead. Crowe was put out trying to advance to second.
Blankenship was able to shake off the effects of getting hit and stay in the game. The next batter she faced hit a ground ball to Yowell for the inning’s third out.
Bradford had had only one baserunner until the bottom of the third. Tinsley Higginbotham hit a leadoff single. Union pitcher Crowe struck out the next batter she faced, but Blankenship was then able to reach on a bunt single. The runners advanced on a passed ball before Amber Wynn brought both home with a single, tying it up at 2-2.
The Tornadoes were able to put one more runner on when Hinds walked, but a fly out to center fielder Alvarez got the Tigers out of the inning.
Bradford took the lead in the fourth. Kallie Yowell hit a leadoff double and moved to third on Madison Highland’s sacrifice bunt. She then scored on a Higginbotham single.
Handley hit a double of her own to lead off the top of the fifth. She stole third and scored on Orton’s sacrifice fly to make it a 3-3 game.
The only hit for either team after the top of the fifth was Hinds’ homer.
Bradford began the bottom of the seventh with a fly out to Alvarez. Keegan Yowell, the second batter, worked the count full before taking ball four. Hinds then stepped to the plate. She fell behind in the count 1-2 but took two balls and fouled off two pitches before connecting on the game-winning hit.
Blankenship was the only Bradford batter with multiple hits, going 2 for 4.
Crowe and Handley went 2 for 3 and 2 for 4, respectively, for the Tigers.
The Tornadoes next host Baldwin on Monday, April 22, at 6 p.m. Bradford then hosts Suwannee on Tuesday, April 23, at 7 p.m.
Union hosts Hawthorne on Friday, April 19, at 7 p.m. and travels to play Chiefland on Tuesday, April 23, at 6 p.m.
