Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

With the first full week of baseball and softball action in Chilton County under the team’s belts, some teams are seeing early on in 2023 they could be a force. Chilton County High School’s baseball team is off to a 4-1 start earning wins over Benjamin Russell High School on Feb. 23 12-2 and Saint James School in a doubleheader on Feb. 25.

The Tigers Brody Pierce hit a solo homer and Tre Fulmer and Cannon Miller each went 2-for-3 to help CCHS to a game one win 7-0. Aidan Bee was on the mound in game one throwing six innings of four-hit baseball and striking out seven hitters. In game two, Saint James took an early 4-0 lead, but CCHS fought back and won 10-7. Fulmer had two doubles and Cohen Ellison and Jonathan Terrell finished the last two innings on the mound to earn the win and push the Tigers to 4-1 to start the season.

Jemison High School’s softball team was one of the busiest teams this past week playing six games in five days. The Panthers won 10-8 over Shades Valley High School on Feb. 24 and 11-7 over Homewood High School on Feb. 25. Trinity Bean was 2-for-3 with a double and triple against Homewood, and six different Jemison hitters recorded two hits against Shades Valley.

The Panthers are fighting injuries right now and lost their center fielder for the season already.

“Right now, we are playing to survive,” Jemison coach Leighsa Robinson said. “When we get everybody back in place, it is going to be a different ballgame. I appreciate the young girls stepping in, and our older girls talking to them in the dugout and teaching them things.”

Jemison fell to Briarwood Christian School 6-4 on Feb. 23, 12-7 to John Carroll Catholic School on Feb. 24, 17-0 to Springville High School on Feb. 25 and 12-1 to Thorsby High School on Feb. 27.

“We fought and we did not give up in any way, so we have a lot of fight in us,” Robinson said.

“We are playing to get better, and you can learn a lot from a loss. We played some really good teams which is going to help us down the road, and we are working every single day to try and improve.”

Jemison’s baseball team lost its doubleheader to Prattville Christian Academy 12-5 in game one and 5-4 in game two.

The aforementioned Thorsby softball team is off to a 2-0 start to the 2023 season with wins over Maplesville High School and Jemison. The Rebels won 7-2 on Feb. 23 over Maplesville with Brinley Giambrone going 4-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs and Makinley Turner had two RBIs and earned the win in the circle. Turner got the win in the circle against Jemison on Feb. 27 as well.

Thorsby’s baseball team picked up a win over Verbena High School on Feb. 25 during its week of action. John Green had two hits for the Rebels, and Braylon Carroll and Aiden Seeley each had a hit in the 5-4 win on the road. Thorsby fell 7-1 to Fayetteville High School on Feb. 25. Remington Taylor had two doubles in the game, and Payton Cole recorded two hits.

Isabella High School’s baseball team is looking for traction after suffering two losses during last week’s action. The Mustangs lost 6-0 to Billingsley High School on Feb. 23. Tyler Mims went 2-for-2 in the game.

Isabella also fell to Maplesville 8-5 on Feb. 27. Tyler Mims, Zac Chapman, Colton Conway, Lane Harmon, Braxton Mims, Garrett Price and Joseph Boatwright all had a hit against Maplesville.

Maplesville’s baseball team rebounded after a 17-1 loss to Vincent High School on Feb. 23 with the win over Isabella. Truett Smith was 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI to lead the Red Devils offense. Troy McMillan and Cade Smith had two RBIs each, and McMillan pitched six and two-thirds innings surrendering seven hits, five earned runs while striking out seven hitters.

Maplesville’s softball team had a busy week with seven games this past week, five of those between Feb. 24-25 at a tournament. The Red Devils went 3-2 at the tournament collecting two wins over Jefferson Davis High School and one over Park Crossing High School.

Lexi Smith and Hayden Carter each had two hits in Maplesville’s loss to Thorsby on Feb. 23. The Red Devils bested Billingsley 9-5 on Feb. 27 with Lexi Cook going 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and an RBI. Jaden McGee went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Grace Williams and Mollie Smith split time on the mound in the win.

Billingsley’s softball team won a game in the Verbena softball tournament taking down Montevallo 11-1. The Bears suffered two losses during the week — the Feb. 27 loss to Maplesville and 11-1 to Shelby County High School on Feb. 24. Yasmine Averhart had a triple against Shelby County, and Madison Chandler had a home run and two RBIs against Maplesville.

The Bears’ baseball team is 4-0 to start the 2023 season picking up the Feb. 23 win over Isabella. Landon Jones hurled six innings of one-hit baseball striking out 12 hitters. Shane Shirah was 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Bears’ offense.

Verbena’s baseball team scored a win over Jefferson Davis 14-4 on Feb. 22, but suffered losses to Fayetteville High School and Thorsby, 5-3 and 5-4 on Feb. 25, respectively.

Verbena’s softball team picked up two wins in their softball tournament hosted between Feb. 24-25. The Red Devils won 14-0 over Montevallo on Feb. 24 and played Shelby County three times on Feb. 25.

Verbena won game one 5-4 with a walk-off home run by Paris Battle. Verbena lost game two 6-0 and game three 8-5. Meagan Shivers recorded six hits throughout the tournament to lead Verbena. Shiver also had five RBIs and a home run. Jaycee Quinn, Lakeyn Mims and Kiara Ray all had five hits with Quinn recorded six RBIs and a home run. Mims had two home runs in the tournament and Maya Schuffert had a home run.