By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – Briarwood’s baseball season has once again kicked off with the Jay D. Kynerd tournament, which is held annually at Briarwood, which is held in memory of 1988 Briarwood graduate Jay Kynerd. The tournament is made up of Briarwood, Oak Mountain, Ramsey and John Carroll Catholic. Through two games, the Lions are 1-1.

 

Game 1. Briarwood 6 – John Carroll 5

The Lions took a 2-0 lead into the top of the fifth via runs from Luis Fuentes and Hudson Hartsfield. However, John Carroll ripped off four runs over the next two innings to take a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Cole Steadman, Michael Hiers and Jake Morris all drew walks to start the inning and load the bases, but Hartsfield then promptly grounded in to a double play, which took Morris off the board at first and gave the Lions two outs in the inning. Will Shepherd however then drew a four-pitch walk, the fourth of the inning, which was promptly followed by Carson Eddy drawing a five-pitch walk, scoring Steadman from third. A wild pitch on the ensuing at-bat from Sam Strickland scored Hiers, and Briarwood had tied the game without collecting a hit in the inning.

Neither team scored in the seventh, and the first game of the year headed to extra innings. After the Cavaliers scored a run in the top of the eight, Morris and Eddy crossed the plate in the bottom of the inning to give Briarwood its first win of the young season.

Trey Mitchell threw six innings, gave up three earned runs and struck out six before Hiers came in in relief to close out the game.

 

Game 2. Briarwood 7 – Ramsay 11

After taking a 7-3 lead entering the final inning of play, Briarwood gave up eight runs to Ramsay in the top of the seventh and lost by a final of 11-8. The Rams hit a triple, a double and four singles in the seventh, and Briarwood was credited with an error in the inning as well. After Shepherd drew a walk to start the bottom of the seventh, he was promptly thrown out at second when Eddy reached first on a fielder’s choice. Strickland then struck out and Kolby Kwarcinski grounded out to second to end the game and drop Briarwood to 1-1.

Strickland led the way from the plate for Briarwood in the second game, going 3-for-5 from the plate with an RBI.

The Lions will face Oak Mountain today at 4 p.m. in the final game of round robin play.

All stats via Gamechanger.