Local baseball, soccer teams in playoff action

The local high school baseball and soccer playoffs were in full force over the weekend, as many programs advanced to live another day, while a few fell and saw their seasons come to a close.

Baseball

Oak Mountain swept Huntsville in its Class 7A first round playoff series. See the recap from Gary Lloyd here. The Eagles advance to take on Vestavia Hills next weekend, with a doubleheader set for Friday, and an if-necessary Game 3 on Saturday at Sammy Dunn Field.

For the second week in a row, Chelsea pulled off a dramatic series win on Saturday, this time defeating Benjamin Russell 5-3 in Game 3, as Emmitt Hudspeath pitched a complete game to send the Hornets to the Class 6A quarterfinals. Here is a recap from Sam Chandler from the first two games of the series on Friday night.

Chelsea will host defending 6A champ Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa next weekend in the quarterfinals. A Friday doubleheader is set to begin at 5 p.m. Game 3 would start at 1 p.m. on Saturday if necessary.

Spain Park saw its season come to an end at the hands of Grissom in the first round of the 7A playoffs, as Grissom won a pair of high-scoring affairs on Friday night. In the first game, the Jags took a quick lead in the top of the first, but Grissom took the lead in the second and held on the rest of the way despite the Jags continuing to chip away. 

Spain Park cut the lead to 6-5 with a run in the sixth, but Grissom added three more in the bottom of the sixth to go up 9-5 and held on for the 9-7 win.

Grissom took an 8-1 lead over the Jags in the second game, but Spain Park showed resilience and battled back with a five-spot in the sixth inning. Spain Park loaded the bases in the final inning, and scored a run, but back-to-back strikeouts left the bases loaded and Grissom held on for an 8-7 win.

The battle of the top two teams in Class 5A took place in the second round between Faith Academy and Briarwood in Mobile. Briarwood won the first game, 6-5, after coming back from a 3-0 deficit to take the lead in the sixth inning. But the Lions failed to score a run in either of the final two games, losing 1-0 in Game 2 and then falling 6-0 in the decisive game on Saturday. 

Briarwood was the top-ranked team in Class 5A from wire-to-wire, but unfortunately met its match early in the postseason, after easily dispatching Headland in the first round.

Soccer

Classes 1-6A began the soccer playoffs over the weekend as well, with both Briarwood teams and Chelsea's girls team in action.

Briarwood hosted Demopolis in Class 4A/5A action in boys and girls action on Saturday. The Lions were the far superior team in both contests, with both teams winning 10-0.

The Briarwood boys are No. 7 in the state's coaches poll, while the girls are No. 2. They will both host Trinity Presbyterian in the second round on Tuesday. The girls game is set for 5 p.m., with the boys to follow at 7 p.m.

No. 4 Chelsea hosted No. 2 Homewood in an intriguing first-round matchup, and the Hornets took home a 3-0 victory.

Chelsea came out strong and created goal-scoring opportunities early and often. Homewood held strong defensively and doubled Haley Greene the whole night. The focus on Greene opened the door for freshman Kailey Littleford. Greene, Lexie Duca and Claire Guillen all had an assist as Littleford recorded her first hat trick. Chelsea held Homewood to four shots as Sabrina Lang kept a clean sheet, recording a save. The Hornets will travel to Northridge for a second round matchup on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

In boys and girls action, Oak Mountain and Spain Park finished 1-2 in the area, and will begin their 7A playoff runs on Tuesday. Oak Mountain's teams will host Hoover on Tuesday, while Spain Park's teams will travel to Vestavia Hills. In both cases, the girls games will start at 5 p.m., with the boys games beginning at 7 p.m.

- Chelsea soccer recap provided by Jonathan Hammett