PLEASANT GROVE — The players say it’s the eye-black.
Gardendale pulled off a perfectly-executed seventh-inning squeeze play by catcher Barrett Edwards, then induced Pleasant Grove relief pitcher Harrison Woods into a bases-loaded balk that scored another run to take a 6-3 win Friday over the Spartans, sweeping their way to the 2010 Jefferson County Baseball Tournament title.
The victory is the latest in a seven-game winning streak in their all-road-game campaign, which followed two big losses to the Spartans in a season-opening doubleheader last week.
Right after that is when the Rockets started putting eye-black on, and they’ve won ever since.
Coach Pat Keedy thinks it’s something else.
“Barrett’s a veteran, pretty calm and collected,” Keedy said. “He played that squeeze almost perfect. He even got a single out of it. And then Jeffrey [Lankford, the runner on third] faked a move that got their third baseman to yell, and that caused their pitcher to flinch and balk.”
The squeeze came with one out and the Rockets ahead 4-3, after lead-off hitter Austin Vaughn walked, designated hitter Chase Handley bunted him to second, Lankford got on base when hit by a Woods pitch, and Cody Belcher hit a flare single to short right field.
Pleasant Grove had taken a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a walk, a single, a Gardendale throwing error and a sacrifice fly. The Rockets went back on top in the next inning when Handley knocked a double, followed by a Lankford triple deep to right center field. Belcher then singled Lankford home, before being picked off at first.
The Spartans tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth when Belcher allowed a run in on a wild pitch, but Gardendale took the lead back in the fifth when Handley hit another double, then scored when Belcher was safe at first after the throw from third pulled first baseman Kelend Smith off the bag.
Kyle Large relieved Belcher in the fifth and did not give up a hit.
“What Kyle can do is give us strikes with a fastball, change-up and a curve, and no one else can do that yet,” Keedy said.
The Rockets had 13 base hits compared to just two for Pleasant Grove.
The win completed a five-game sweep of the tournament, with the title actually being decided Thursday with a 4-3 over Hueytown, in a game played at UAB.
In that game, Edwards hit a two-strike, two-out double to deep center that brought home Belcher with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.
Handley got his first win with five innings on the mound, allowing two hits and one earned run.
In other JeffCo games:
• Gardendale 7, McAdory 3: Large struck out nine in 52/3 innings and gave up two hits Wednesday.
Handley hit a double and a single, and scored three runs. Edwards also had a single and double in four at-bats with two RBIs.
• Gardendale 9, Minor 3: The Rockets broke it open with five runs in the sixth on Tuesday. Belcher had a triple and a double in four at-bats and drove in two runs.
Josh Freeman (2-0) went six innings and struck out five Tigers.
• Mortimer Jordan 4, Pleasant Grove 2: The Blue Devils broke a tie with a pair of runs in the sixth inning Wednesday.
Mason Davis went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Reliever Skylar Myrick got the win, giving up three hits and no runs in three innings.
• Hueytown 10, Mortimer Jordan 0 (5 inn.): The Devils got only two base hits but committed five errors, as the Golden Gophers put up five runs each in the third and fifth innings for the run-rule victory.
• Corner 12, Fultondale 9: In the small-school division of the JeffCo Tournament, the Wildcats put up three runs in each of the first three innings, but the Yellow Jackets went on a tear with eight runs in the fourth to take the lead for good.
Matt Burnett was 2-for-4 with two doubles, Jordan Shipp knocked a run-scoring triple, and Jared Humphrey was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Jake Eiland closed out the game for Corner by striking out all six batters in the last two innings, with 18 of his 24 pitches for strikes.
Gary Willis hit a two-run double for the Wildcats.
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Related Photos
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Gardendale’s Jeffrey Lankford chugs around from second base to third as the Pleasant Grove outfield bring the ball in on Lankford’s triple in the third inning of the Rockets’ 6-3 win over the Spartans on Friday. Robert Carter
Discussion
Rockets zoom to county baseball title
Squeeze play seals win over Pleasant Grove
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