Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

KIMBERLY – The Calera Eagles went down to the wire with the Mortimer Jordan Blue Devils on Wednesday, April 3 at Mortimer Jordan High School, but in the end, a two-run seventh inning for the Eagles gave them a 6-4 win on the road.

Calera took the lead on the second pitch of the game as Whitney Holtzapfel hit a solo home run to put her team up 1-0.

However, Mortimer Jordan loaded up the bases in the bottom of the inning with a walk, single and hit by pitch. Two batters later, a passed ball tied up the game and the Blue Devils hit into a groundout that gave them a 2-1 lead.

After a scoreless second inning, Holtzapfel then came up big again with another solo home run, this time off the first pitch of the third to tie the game at 2-2. She ended the day 3-for-4 with a walk, two runs and two RBI.

Kinley Rodgers hit a one-out single to put another runner on, and after a fly out, Armiya Shamburger launched a two-run home run to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead.

That score line held until the bottom of the fifth when Mortimer Jordan responded.

After a walk and a single to start the inning, a passed ball advanced the runners to second and third, but Calera got an out during that at-bat to momentarily stave off the threat.

On the next batter, though, the Blue Devils hit an RBI double to plate a pair of runs and tie the game up at 4-4.

The Eagles couldn’t capitalize on a bases-loaded spot with two outs in the sixth, but after a one-two-three bottom of the inning, they came back to the plate in the plate in the top of the seventh with one last chance to end the game before extra innings.

Rodgers started the inning with a lead-off double, and Mortimer Jordan then allowed the base paths to fill with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Bristol Rogers tried to bring a runner home, but the Blue Devils third baseman opted to throw the runner out at home for the first out of the inning.

The bases were still loaded off of that play though, and Khloe Gothard and Isabella Overton hit RBI singles off back-to-back pitches to go up 6-4.

Calera then got out all three batters it faced in the bottom of the seventh to seal the two-run win.

Kate Townley earned the complete-game win as she worked around three earned runs, four total runs, five hits and two walks while taking three strikeouts.

The Eagles will hit the road again on Thursday, April 4 to take on the Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa Patriots at 4:30 p.m.