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By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

As the dust settles on the 2023 baseball season in Chilton County, four schools punched their tickets to the postseason by winning or placing runner-up in their respective areas. The other three area baseball teams finished their regular seasons up this week.

Jemison High School

The Panthers finished up AHSAA Class 5A Area 7 play with three games in two days against Marbury High School on April 11 and 12. Jemison lost game one on April 11, 6-1. Lane Pate was 1-for-3 with a double, and Alex Bice was 1-for-3 and collected the Panthers lone RBI.

April 12 featured a doubleheader with Marbury, and Jemison was swept by their area rival to miss out on the playoffs. A 10-0 loss in game one saw Tucker Bean, Daniel Flores, Cooper Smitherman and Pate each have a single. Game two was a 12-0 loss for Jemison, and Guyton Pace, Smitherman and Pate all had a single in the game.

Jemison had another doubleheader on April 15 against Vincent High School, and the Panthers fell in game one 3-0. Bice was 2-for-3, and Smitherman had a single. In game two, Jemison lost 3-1, but took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a dropped third strike.

However, Vincent scored the game’s last three runs to take the win. Dylan Click, Trenton Gaines and Smitherman all recorded a double.

Jemison ended its season on a positive note with a 9-3 win over Maplesville High School on April 17. The Panthers led 7-0 after two innings behind a two-run home run from Pate in the first and three runs off errors in the second inning. Smitherman was 2-for-3 with a double, Flores was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Pate had three RBIs.

Tyler Porter secured the win on the mound throwing five and one-third innings and surrendering three hits and three runs, all unearned. He struck out 10 Maplesville hitters.

 

Verbena High School

Verbena’s last week of action was full of wins to close out their 2023 season, starting with a 7-4 win over Isabella High School on April 11. Lance Edwards had a home run in a 2-for-4 effort with two RBIs, and Johnathan Marino was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Christopher Guzman controlled the mound, throwing five innings of four-hit baseball while striking out six hitters.

The Red Devils ended its AHSAA Class 1A Area 6 schedule by sweeping a doubleheader over Autaugaville High School on April 13. Verbena outscored Autaugaville 35-6 in the two games to cruise to a third-place finish in the area.

Verbena continued its hot streak into April 17 with an 8-3 win over Dallas County High School powered by Jarod Quinn’s two-run home run. Marino was 3-for-3, and Guzman was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

Verbena ended its regular season with a 22-6 thrashing of Central of Coosa County High School on April 18 to end the season on a five-game winning streak. The Red Devils piled up 13 hits against Coosa Central, and Alan Martinez had three of them going 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Marino launched a home run and had four RBIs, Edwards had three RBIs and Ryan Simmons had five RBIs.

 

Isabella High School

The Mustangs went 1-3 in their final week of the 2023 season. Isabella picked up an AHSAA Class 2A Area 6 win on April 14 over Coosa Central 17-0. Isabella ended the game early with three runs to open the game, and six runs in the second and third innings. They outhit Central Coosa 16-0, and Austin Porter, Dawson Edwards and Colton Conway each had three hits. Conway had three RBIs, and Zac Chapman did as well.

Isabella could not hold the lead against Verbena High School on April 11 and lost 7-4. Richard Henderson had an RBI double in the second inning to give Isabella a 3-2 lead. However, Verbena outscored Isabella 5-1 the rest of the game.

Isabella also dropped its April 13 game to Dallas County 4-1. Porter was 2-for-3 to lead the way, and Tyler Mims, Lane Harmon and Chapman collected a single in the game.

Isabella ended its regular season on April 17 falling 20-6 to Billingsley. Porter led the way again going 4-for-4 with a double and three RBIs.

 

Chilton County High School

The Tigers swept both of its games this week to end their regular season, including a 12-2 win on April 12 that put them in the AHSAA Class 6A state baseball playoffs. J.D. Terrell threw five innings of four-hit baseball, and Cannon Miller was 3-for-3 with a double and four RBIs. Tre Fulmer and Aiden Bee each had two RBIs.

CCHS closed out its regular season with a 3-2 win over Montevallo High School on April 17. The game was scoreless until the fourth inning when Bee broke open the scoring with a solo home run. Carter Emmerich had a solo blast in the fifth inning to put CCHS up 2-0.

Montevallo got a run in the sixth inning, but CCHS restored the two-run lead at 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning. Montevallo was threatening again in the seventh inning. They pushed across on run and were set up with runners on first and second base with one out. Terrell got the hitter to ground into a double play to end the game.

CCHS threw six different pitchers in the game, and Emmerich threw the third and fourth innings and earned the win.

 

Thorsby High School

The Rebels got a massive performance from Aiden Seeley on April 14 against Reeltown High School to win 5-2 and secure a spot in the AHSAA Class 2A state baseball playoffs. Seeley threw seven innings and gave up one hit and two unearned runs while striking out eight hitters.

Thorsby scored five runs in the first inning after Reeltown scored one run in the top half of the first inning punctuated by a two-run RBI from Malachi Allgood. Allgood and Tyler Lockhart each had two RBIs, and Seeley added an RBI double to his totals.

The win came three days after Thorsby lost 12-2 to Reeltown on April 11 where J.T. Green and Allgood had RBI singles. Remington Taylor had a double in the game.

Splitting the series forced a third game between the schools to decide the area winner, which went to Reeltown.

The Rebels ended their regular season on April 18 falling just short at Montevallo 8-7. Thorsby led 5-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but Montevallo scored six runs in the fifth and sixth innings to go up 8-5. The Rebels battled in the top of the seventh inning, and Christopher Buendtner had a two-RBI single to cut the lead down to 8-7.

With Buendtner in scoring position and representing the tying run, Thorsby struck out for the final out to fall one run short. Gavin Parker and Seeley each had two hits in the game. Allgood and Buendtner each had two RBIs.

 

Maplesville High School

The Red Devils had their postseason position locked up going into their April 11 and 13 games with Billingsley. The winner of the series secured the area title, and Maplesville fell 2-1 in game one on April 11. Troy McMillan had an RBI single in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 2-1, but the Bears closed the game out.

April 13 saw another one run loss for Maplesville, 4-3 to Billingsley. Maplesville scored two runs in the first inning to take the lead, however, a three-run fourth inning from Billingsley gave the Bears the lead for good.

Maplesville ended its regular season with a 9-3 loss to Jemison on April 17. Cade Smith was 2-for-3, and Bradlee Padgett collected two RBIs.

 

Billingsley High School

The Bears went 4-1 this week in their action on the diamond including the two wins over Maplesville on April 11 and 13.

April 15 saw Billingsley travel to Westminster School at Oak Mountain for a doubleheader, and the Bears took game one 3-1. Kyle Boice and Brady Caver each went 2-for-4, and Boice notched a double. Mason Truesdale threw three innings and gave up just three hits. Shane Shirah pitched the last four innings for Billingsley giving up four hits and one unearned run.

Game two was Billingsley’s third loss of the season, falling 17-5. Hudson Manning, Hunter Wyatt and Nathan Gilmore had six of the nine Billingsley hits in the game. Wyatt had two RBIs, and Manning and Gilmore had one each.

The Bears ended their week and regular season with a 20-6 win over Isabella. Landon Jones had five RBIs and a grand slam against the Mustangs.