Jemison softball hammers CCHS in season finale
Published 5:14 pm Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Jemison softball banged out 14 hits and rode a strong pitching performance by Hannah Rose Corbin during a 14-3 victory over Chilton County in their regular season finale on Tuesday.
After falling behind 1-0 in the opening inning, the Panthers got on the board with five runs in the top of the third for a lead they would never relinquish.
Jessica Paschal got things started with a one-out double and later scored on an infield ground ball by Corbin.
One batter later, Destiny Bailey’s grounder was mishandled, scoring Jasmine Epperson, who had drawn a two-out walk.
Erristen Evans delivered a double to score Bailey, and Evans crossed the plate when Emma Allred’s line drive got by the left fielder.
The scoring for the inning concluded when Allred raced home when Erica Street beat out an infield single.
Chilton County answered back with two runs to cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the third, but the Panthers’ bats were up to the challenge.
Kennise Bolton drew a leadoff walk, then with one out, Epperson lined a single into left.
Corbin drove in both runners with a double to center field, and pinch runner Dara Harris increased the lead to 8-3 on an Evans single.
Jemison took advantage of a couple of fielding errors and then turned to the long ball in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
After singles by Paschal and Epperson and a couple of defensive miscues, Corbin bounced a shot to center off the fence to grow the score 12-3.
Allred drove a pitch out of the park in center and scored Evans, who had doubled earlier.
The Tigers battled back in the bottom of the fifth.
However, with a runner on second and one out, Kelson Cole went deep behind first base on a fly ball to make a fantastic catch, then doubled off a base runner to end the game.
Both Jemison and Chilton County will compete in area tournaments next week, with the Panthers traveling to Helena on Tuesday to take on Calera in the opening round.