GREENEVILLE — The Morristown Little League (12U) All-Stars nearly rounded the order in each of the first two innings, jumping out to a 12-0 lead in the process.

Turns out, almost all of those 12 runs were needed in a 17-9 win over South Jefferson on Tuesday night at Hardin Park in Greeneville.

Morristown led 13-1 after three innings, and if the lead stayed at 10 after four, it would have ended the night early with a run-rule win.

However, the South Jefferson All-Stars came roaring back, taking advantage of several Morristown errors in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit to 13-6 and later 13-8.

Morristown was able to reel it back in with a fourrun top of the sixth and still hold on for a comfortable win.

“Our hitting went well, our base running went well,” head coach Jennifer Stewart said. “We capitalized on any errors that they had or miscommunications on the field, and our girls responded excellently. So I’m very proud of them with how they came out those first two innings, and those runs were what allowed us to stay on top of that lead when we had some things that kind of showed themselves — a few little weaknesses that showed themselves there in those middle innings, but we came back to finish really, really strong. Our pitching could not have been better. That was something that we, we really pulled on with some very strong pitching from Cassie Carver tonight.”

Carver struck out 10 batters, and she helped secure Morristown’s early lead when she stranded runners on second and third in the bottom of the first by striking out the last two batters.

Carver came off the mound before South Jefferson’s comeback bid started in the bottom of the fourth, but she returned to the mound with no outs and two runners on. She walked the first batter, and two scored on a wild pitch. After South Jefferson’s sixth run came home on an obstruction call, Carver delivered three straight strikeouts to retire the side and keep Morristown’s lead safe.

“She hit her spots well,” Stewart said. “She’s one who comes out, and she’s aggressive. She can feed on energy really well. She’s one who responds, as you saw after we had some plays and calls that didn’t necessarily go the way that we were hoping, and she came out with vengeance. She’s one that really knows how to push herself and to capitalize on that energy and her own energy that she’s pulling from.”

E.C. Stewart opened the game with a walk and was followed by singles from Carver and Addi Bauer to load the bases. Jenkins got the first run on the board when she reached on a fielder’s choice.

Kenya Boyd reloaded the bases with a walk, and Keylee Linkous reached on an error, allowing two runs to score to make it 3-0. Boyd then stole home to make it 4-0. Edie Hyde followed with a walk, and Kylie Dickerson evaded a tag at first to help score another run. Hyde later scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-0 after the first half-inning.

Despite walks from Karli Kibodeux and Caidynce Wilds, Carver’s shutdown of the next three batters put the Morristown offense back to work.

London Dailey reached and later scored on an error, and Jenkins made it 8-0 two batters later with an RBI single. Bauer scored on a wild pitch, and Keylee Linkous hit a two-RBI, later scoring on a wild pitch to make it 12-0.

The third inning was much quieter and left Morristown with its first scoreless inning. However, South Jefferson got on the board after Zoey Drinnon singled and Joey Drinnon sent her home with an RBI groundout.

Morristown out in another run in the top of the fourth with a Keylee Linkous RBI double to lead 131, but South Jefferson came alive in the bottom of the frame to make things interesting.

Wilds scored one on a fielder’s choice, followed by an Emma Bertrang RBI single to get it back to 133.

South Jefferson scored two more on a wild pitch, and the obstruction call cut the deficit to seven before Carver limited the damage with three Ks. It took advantage of more Morristown errors in the bottom of the fifth after Joey Drinnon reached on one with two outs to send Emma Webb home, and a couple more errors helped Drinnon round all the way home, cutting the deficit to five before Carver’s strikeout ended the rally.

With South Jefferson knocking on the door entering the top of the sixth, Morristown was back at the top of its order. E.C. Stewart, who had been walked in her first three at-bats, finally got a chance to swing her bat, and she delivered a single that reignited her team’s offense. She was followed by Carver, who reached on a fielder’s choice.

Then, Bauer stepped up to the plate and ripped a double to right field to make it 14-8. Paisley furthered the momentum with an RBI single, and Morristown later made it 17-8 when Keylee Linkous and Edie Hyde walked in runs.

Bauer went 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and a walk, and Jenkins was 3-for-3 and also reached on a fielder’s choice in the first, finishing with three RBIs. Keylee Linkous led the team with four RBIs, and also helped score two more when she reached on an error in the first.

“E.C., then Cassie, Addi, Paisley, Keylee — all of them were able to push the runners, even if it was drawing a walk,” Stewart said. They all had really smart at-bats, we were able to push our runners and get runners across the plate to kind of stretch that lead a little bit and put a little bit of insurance on there coming into that bottom end of the sixth.”

Morristown had plenty of production across the board as every girl in the 12-person order reached base at least once.

The Morristown All-Stars advanced to face Greeneville on Wednesday night, and the loser faces South Jefferson on Thursday in an elimination game.

Morristown looks to clean up the errors and build on a strong outing from its bats as it makes its push to the state tournament.

“We’ll take the win all day long,” Stewart said. “I feel like our lineup was really good. I enjoyed that lineup. We hit top to bottom, we had people that were on base top to bottom, and we’ll just continue to look at our movements and where we need to put the best players in the best positions on the field, so that we can be sure that we’ve got the coverage that we need and the movement that we need to back up those plays when they unfold.”