By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

MONTEVALLO — Reeves Brashear’s home run highlighted a three-run fifth inning for Childersburg as the Tigers overtook the lead for good to end a back-and-forth battle with host Montevallo, eventually grabbing the 11-6 win in the Hope 4 Gabe varsity baseball tournament Feb. 21.

In the fifth, Montevallo starting pitcher Will Snyder sat down the first two Tiger batters before yielding Childerburg’s trio of runs and being relieved by Wesley Mims. Mims retired the only batter he faced that inning, but the damage had been done.

The Tigers’ Will Donahoo shut out the Bulldogs over the final three innings while Childersburg added three insurance runs in the top of the sixth to get the victory.

“Again, two nights in a row we’ve given quality at-bats,” said Montevallo head coach Trey Simpson. “(But) we’re just not helping our pitchers out enough right now. We have opportunities to end innings and shut rallies down and we’re just not doing it.

“It goes back to defense. If you want to win baseball games you have to play great defense and I think they (Childersburg) probably scored about eight runs or so on seven errors.”

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs scored four runs to grab the lead. Justin Pickett led off with a single and worked his way to third, ultimately scoring on a wild pitch. Childersburg starter Justin Baker then hit three consecutive Bulldog batters to load the bases before Hunter Nabors cleared them with a three-RBI double that gave Montevallo the one-run edge.

After the Tigers responded by going up 5-4 in the top of the fourth, Montevallo fought back in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded again, Mims drew a walk to drive in Pickett before Jonathan Pintaro put the Bulldogs back on top with a sacrifice fly that plated pinch runner Seth Hawks.

It was all Childersburg the rest of the way.

Donahoo got the victory for the Tigers while Montevallo’s Snyder took the loss.

Offensively for the Bulldogs, Nabors went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI’s, Mims was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Pintaro tallied an RBI of his own.