BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Visiting Yulee scored two runs in the seventh in handing the Bradford High School softball team a 5-3 loss on March 16.
Takeirra Bakken and Masey Padgett each had an RBI single in the fifth as Bradford (2-5) was able to tie the score at 3-3, but the Hornets took advantage of two walks and two singles to score two runs in the final inning.
Yulee took a 2-0 lead when Riley Kapparis hit a two-out home run in the top of the first.
The Tornadoes’ Madison Highland hit a homer of her own to cut the Hornets’ lead to one run in the second.
Bradford trailed 3-1 entering the bottom of the fifth. Blakeleigh Smith hit a one-out double. With two outs, Rylie Blankenship walked before Padgett and Bakken had consecutive hits to plate two runs and even the score.
Bakken, who went 3 for 4, reached on a two-out double in the bottom of the seventh, but a strikeout ended the game.
The only other Bradford player with multiple hits was Highland, who went 2 for 3.
Bradford entered the game off a 16-1, five-inning loss to visiting Baker County on March 14.
Bakken hit an RBI single to tie the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the first, but the Tornadoes had only one hit the rest of the way as the Wildcats scored 15 unanswered runs.
The Tornadoes return to action on Monday, March 27, when they travel to play Hawthorne at 7 p.m.
