Photo by Richard Force
Chelsea players celebrate in a game earlier this season.
The Chelsea High School baseball team is making its second trip to the state championship series in program history after pulling off a sweep of Stanhope Elmore.
The Hornets are back in the Class 6A state finals for the first time since 2019, as they swept the Mustangs 3-2 and 8-1 on Thursday night.
Chelsea will take on Hartselle in the state championship, a best two-of-three series. The first game will be Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Choccolocco Park. The second game (followed by a third game if needed) will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Jacksonville State University.
The Hornets are headed to the season's last week thanks to a great performance Thursday. They began the series with a 3-2 win over Stanhope Elmore. The Hornets broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning by scoring on an error and going ahead by a run. Both teams scratched across a run in the first inning, before Stanhope scored another in the second and Chelsea knotted it back up in the third.
Cade Mims registered the game's only run batted in, finishing with a pair of hits. Aiden Hughes and Luke Neill each tallied two hits in the contest as well. Hughes got the start on the mound and was solid, allowing two unearned runs on three hits in three innings, to go along with three strikeouts. Paxton Stallings came on in the fourth inning and locked it down the rest of the way. He surrendered a single hit over the final four innings, striking out five.
Chelsea pulled away in the second game with an 8-1 victory. The teams played a scoreless first three frames before the Hornets broke out for three in the fourth inning. Aiden Craven's single drove in a run and Neill knocked in a pair with a hit a few batters later. Mims had an RBI double and Craven tallied another run-scoring hit in the fifth inning to make it 5-0.
Stanhope Elmore scratched across a run before the Hornets added three more in the seventh, as Stallings had an RBI single and Neill followed with a two-run hit. Neill finished with 4 RBIs in the game.
Jackson Price was dominant on the hill for Chelsea, allowing an unearned run on four hits in the complete game. He struck out seven batters as well.
