BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Campbell Webb hit a walk-off RBI single in the Union County High School softball team’s 12-11, eight-inning win over visiting Buchholz on April 12.
The Class 1A Tigers (10-7) scored three runs in the eighth to win their sixth straight game.
Class 6A Buchholz scored the game’s first four runs, but Union evened it up in the bottom of the second. Webb and Brooke Hunt hit back-to-back singles with one out. Brooke Burgess reached on an error with two outs to load the bases. Jailyn Simmons hit an RBI single before Emma Handley doubled to push three runs across, making it 4-4.
Union fell behind again, 9-6, but tied it again with a three-run sixth. Simmons drew a walk, while Leanne Dicks reached on an error. Mackenzie Orton hit a two-run double, followed by Shyla Crowe’s one-run single.
The score remained 9-9 after seven innings. In extra innings, each team’s at-bat starts with a runner on second. Buchholz’s Elizabeth Munson was placed on second to start the top of the eighth. She moved to third on a ground out before scoring on a single by Jordyn Cooper. Cooper the scored on a double by Jayda Cooper, putting the Bobcats up 11-9.
Burgess was placed on second to start Union’s half of the eighth. The Tigers’ first two batters were put out on pop-ups. Dicks hit a single that scored Burgess, with Dicks advancing to third on the throw. Orton then hit an RBI single to tie the score. Union avoided a ninth inning when Webb connected on a 1-0 pitch for the winning run.
Hunt and Dicks went 3 for 3 and 3 for 5, respectively. Each finished with one RBI.
Orton went 2 for 4 with three RBI, while Webb was 2 for 5 with an RBI.
Handley finished with three RBI, while Crowe and Simmons each had one.
The Tigers entered the game off a 20-0, three-inning win over visiting Crescent City on April 9.
Crowe drove in four runs, two of which occurred in a five-run first.
Union scored 15 runs in the second, which included two-run doubles by Crowe and Jaydin Alvarez and a one-run single by Orton. Alvarez, in a second at-bat in the inning, drew a bases-loaded walk. Burgess, Dicks, Handley, Mia Kent, Makenzie Radford and Michael-Ann Smith also drew bases-loaded walks, while Orton and Lillie Conner were each hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The big inning also included a run scored on a wild pitch.
Alvarez and Orton finished with three and two RBI, respectively, while the following had one each: Burgess, Conner, Dicks, Handley, Hunt, Kent, Radford and Smith.
Crowe pitched all three innings, giving up two hits and no walks.
Union travels to play Class 3A Bradford on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. and then hosts 1A Hawthorne on Friday, April 19, at 7 p.m. The Tigers travel to play 1A Chiefland on Tuesday, April 23, at 6 p.m.
