BY AUSTIN ALEXANDER

STAR CORRESPONDENT

KINGSPORT— Tuesday night saw a wild finish between the two teams in the loser’s bracket of the District 1-A softball tournament.

The matchup between the Cloudland Lady Highlanders and the University High Lady Bucs ended in one of the more unorthodox walk-offs in recent memory. University High was keen to pull off an upset until a two-run seventh inning earned Cloudland a 5-4 win.

Cloudland started the do or die game with lefty Karah Fields on the mound. Despite an error fielding the opening hit of the game, Fields bounced back to retire the side in short order.

University High selected Avery Kibelbeck to start on the mound but she got off to a bumpy start.

Cloudland got on the board in the first when Kaylen Fields knocked a single into right scoring Heaven Caraway and making the score 1-0 after one.

The top of the second inning featured another display of great pitching from Karah Fields as she recorded three outs facing only four hitters.

Singles from Krisi Bare and Leah Birchfield put two baserunners on with two outs for the Lady Landers in the bottom of the second.

A wild pitch scored Bare from third and an error allowed Birchfield around to home making the score 3-0.

Three walks in the top of the third loaded the bases for Lady Bucs first baseman Cyndia Dobbins who came through with a single into right scoring two runs and making the score 3-2 .

To start the bottom of the third frame, Jasmine Birchfield was walked but the next three batters were put away all in a row.

The fourth inning was a defensive battle between the two teams as each recorded a double play and didn’t allow any runs.

In the fifth, two singles to start the inning brought a pitching change for Cloudland as they turned to Kenzie Birchfield to finish the game.

She shut down the Lady Bucs but a dropped ball by the left fielder allowed a runner to score for UH making the score 4-3 headed to the bottom of the inning.

Kibelbeck once again quickly took down the Lady Landers in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The sixth inning again saw the defensive chops come out for the two teams as not much offense took place during the entire inning either way.

Kenzie Birchfield retired the side three up and three down to set up a do-or-die home half of the inning for Cloudland.

The bottom half of the inning got started when Jasmine Birchfield reached base on an error. A groundball single followed that into center from Kaylen Fields.

The next batter up was Kenzie Birchfield who laid down an excellent bunt that got her safely on board and loaded the bases for Krisi Bare.

Bare would pop a ball straight up in the infield forcing an infield fly rule which at this time runners are allowed to move at their own accord and force outs are no longer in play.

Since there was so much confusion on the ruling University High mistakenly threw the ball to first hoping to double up the runner, but instead, two Lady Landers cleverly sprinted across home plate ending the game in one of the most bizarre walk-offs witnessed to date.

Cloudland had a date with the loser of Unaka and North Greene Wednesday evening.