Roberson's homer lifts Eagles to big win
BIRMINGHAM -- With the regular season Class 7A, Area 6 title on the line, the Oak Mountain High School softball team finally got it right.
The Eagles stayed energetic and engaged throughout the whole game, and it paid off, as O’Neil Roberson’s line drive two-run home run over the left field fence won the game in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the tenth inning, as Oak Mountain secured a 2-0 win over rival Spain Park on Thursday evening.
“I’ve just preaching to them to play the entire seven innings, be into it the entire seven innings,” Oak Mountain coach Kaitlin Griffin said. “That’s the first time we’ve actually done that, and I think that’s why we ended up winning.”
Roberson’s bomb in the tenth ended a phenomenal pitcher’s duel, as Annabelle Widra of Spain Park (34-4) and Oak Mountain’s Clara Fuller battled each other pitch for pitch.
Fuller allowed just three hits in her 10 innings in the circle, along with one walk and three strikeouts. She recorded 20 of her 27 outs via fly out, as she kept Jags’ hitters off balance the entire evening.
“Clara was phenomenal,” Griffin said. “She threw great. She worked ahead, she got them to swing at her pitches, and that’s all we ask of her.”
Just as strong on the mound was Widra, who whiffed 10 Eagles in 9 1/3 innings. Oak Mountain (14-11-1) mustered eight hits and the two runs off the eighth-grader.
Both pitchers battled out of a few precarious situations that could have finally dented an Oak Mountain scoreboard that was filled to its maximum capacity of 0s after nine innings of play.
Roberson nearly ended the game in her at-bat prior to the homer. With a runner at second, she nearly split the gap in left center, but Jenna Olszewski stretched out to make a running catch in the gap to keep the game alive.
Widra nearly put her team ahead herself, as she belted a drive to straightaway center in the seventh inning, a ball that bounced off the top of the fence and missed clearing it for a homer by mere inches.
Spain Park’s Maddie Majors led off the ninth with a triple, but Fuller induced a groundout and two fly outs to escape the jam.
In the bottom of the ninth, Oak Mountain loaded the bases, and Fuller hit a slow grounder to short with two outs that looked to be trouble. But Abbi Brown, moving from second to third, collided with Jag shortstop Mary Katherine Tedder. Baserunner interference was called, ending the inning and keeping a run off the board.
Taylor Harrington notched the other hit for the Jags. Greenwood and Fuller finished the day with two hits apiece for the Eagles. Jenna Galloway notched a hit and later scored on Roberson’s homer.
Each team committed two errors in the game, not usually a noteworthy stat but one that is, considering that Oak Mountain committed over 10 errors in its loss to Thompson earlier in the week.
“We worked on that,” Griffin said. “Thompson was a little shaky. We got some stuff worked out and that’s what our defense should look like.”
The two teams’ split in area play, with Spain Park finishing up 5-1 and Oak Mountain currently at 4-1, with a game still to play against Huffman. The Eagles are expecting to beat Huffman, leaving a tie atop the area standings. A coin flip sometime in the near future should determine the host of the area tournament.