It&8217;s been a long time coming for the Coosa Valley Rebels. CVA scored five runs in the sixth inning to ambush the Shelby County Raiders 7-3 Friday, handing the Raiders their first area loss.

The win was the Rebels&8217; first over Shelby since 2004 and gave CVA sole possession of first place in Region 1, Area 1.

&8220;We had to beat the green team,&8221; catcher Chase Ward said.

With two outs and two on in the top of the sixth inning, Ward stepped to the plate with a perfect 3-for-3 performance on the line and his team trailing 2-1. He responded with a bases-clearing double to give the Rebels a 3-2 lead and later scored on an error to put the Rebs up 4-2.

&8220;I knew I had to do something. He (Cody Jones) threw me a fast ball and I ripped it up the middle,&8221; Ward said.

Following the double, Shelby chose to intentionally walk Zac Taylor, who leads the Rebels with a .607 batting average, and face Michael Klinner, who hit a two-run home run.

&8220;It&8217;s not the way we want to do things, but we&8217;ve lived off the home run recently,&8221; CVA coach Kevin Oakes said.

Ward led off the game by driving a 1-1 fastball over the left field fence to give CVA an early 1-0 lead. The bomb was his third in three games and seventh on the season.

Shelby responded with a pair of runs in the second off a two-out double by Parke Rocho.

Both teams added runs in the seventh.

Taylor had 11 strike outs and two hits for the complete game win, while Jones struck out nine.

Earlier in the week, Shelby defeated Open Door 15-0, while CVA added a 12-2 win over Kingwood Christian. Kingwood avenged the loss on Monday by scoring six runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 10-8.

Shelby (9-5) and CVA (14-8)

meet in Harpersville next Friday