Serving as the team’s leading hitter, Jaylen Padgett approached the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday night without a hit.

Then it happened as if it was scripted beforehand.

Tied 2-2 and a runner in scoring position, the senior star smoked a deep ball into left field to walk things off for the Lady Tigers against their cross-county rivals.

Northeast Jones beat West Jones 3-2 on a crazy night of softball.

"My heart is still beating pretty hard," said Lady Tigers head coach Jana Byrd. "It was time for Padgett to come through. She had a few at-bats tonight, and it didn't work out. But then went it mattered, she came through for us.

“It was a great team win, too.”

The first six innings flew swiftly by, neither team able to send runs across till the top frame of the seventh. 

West Jones scored two in the top half of the seventh on back-to-back RBI groundouts by Faith Sanders and Natalee Ainsworth with no outs. NEJ pitcher Tea Thomas and the Lady Tigers’ defense stopped the bleeding at two runs. Thomas threw all seven innings, allowing just three West Jones hits on 89 total pitches. She finished with six strikeouts.

"Thomas is a warrior for sure," said Byrd. "She stays in there and doesn't let her back get down. She's commanding the field, and that's what we ask from her - come out, command the field, and run it. It's her field."

Trailing 2-0, and down to its final bottom frame, Northeast Jones drew up a little "Jungle" magic. 

"We knew who we had coming up," said Byrd. "We knew if they could get on base, things would happen. Short bloopers in the infield sometimes work just as well as fly balls in the outfield."

Madison "Maddie" Williams led off the bottom frame with a double. She scored two passed balls later. After Shai Moore and Tazanna Thomas reached base on a walk and fielders' choice, pitch hitter Daetyn Turner drove in Moore to tie the game at two-apiece on an infielder blooper and sent Thomas to second base. 

Padgett then drove in Thomas to walk the night off. 

"This type of game gives us a boost, no doubt," Byrd said. "We have some competition coming up, as a matter of fact, next week we go to Florence. We've already played them once here and won, but this game will give us confidence going into where if we get down like tonight, we know we can come back."

What’s Next:

Northeast Jones improves to 6-2 overall and will travel to Brookhaven Thursday night to play Enterprise-Lincoln. 

West Jones falls to 2-5 and plays host to Taylorsville Friday night in Soso.