Simply said, if you were fortunate enough tonight to witness the 14 inning marathon between the Gardendale Rockets softball team and the Mortimer Jordan Blue Devils softball team, either in person or on live stream, you saw everything that makes softball great.
Credit to the dads of the Rocket players who make the Facebook live stream possible. Your passion for the players and the team and softball is infectious and you should be streaming this across ESPN+ so more people can experience it.
Natalie Snow pitched all 14 innings in a tour deforce, allowing 9 hits and 5 runs with 4 strikeouts.
She threw 188 pitches in a gritty performance.
Gardendale had 11 hits on the night with 8 Rockets contributing at least one hit and Lillie Piersol, Natalie Snow and Allie Busbee with 2 hits each. Snow hit a homer in the 5th.
The Rockets had the game in hand after a 2 run homer by Snow in the 5th, but the Blue Devils had their best inning in the 6th, putting up 4 runs and the Rockets found themselves down 4-2 going into the bottom of the 6th and battled back to tie the game at 4-4. Both teams added runs in the 8th inning and there was a battle all of the way to the 14th.
It was Allie Busbee in the 14th inning that kept fouling off multiple pitches until she found the pitch she needed and doubled in the corner to bring in a run and secure the win 6-5.
Softball is a fantastic sport. Congratulations to both teams and their parents. Watching the teams battle it out and then come together at the end of the game is an example of the very best of competition and class.
