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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CALERA – The Calera Eagles bounced back from two consecutive losses to Pike Road and Thompson with a 10-1 victory against the Moody Blue Devils on Thursday, Feb. 22 at Calera High School.

Calera did all of its damage in the second and sixth innings as it shut down Moody to earn the nine-run win.

After each team got through the first with a one-two-three inning, Calera earned three straight outs to set up a big bottom of the second inning.

After a leadoff strikeout, Tyde Harrison, Antorious Johnson and Chase Herring each drew walks as the Eagles loaded up the bases with two outs.

Then, Joshua Rhoads hit a line drive RBI single on the second pitch of the at-bat to score Johnson, but an error from the Blue Devils third baseman allowed him to reach third and Herring to also cross home plate.

Gavin Blankenship brought Rhoads home on the next at-bat with an RBI triple to make the lead 3-0.

Mac Graham closed out the scoring in the inning with an RBI single to head into the third inning with a 4-0 lead.

Moody took advantage of a pair of lead-off walks in the top of the fifth to score its first run of the game with a sacrifice fly, making the score 4-1.

However, that would be the only run the Blue Devils scored in the game as Calera pulled away for the win from there.

The Eagles resumed scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning after a lead-off double and a walk put runners on the corners with one out.

Rhoads scored his second run of the night off an RBI single by Jackson Rivera to make the score 5-1. On the next play, a sacrifice fly by Will Harrison allowed Graham to reach home for the sixth run of the night.

While that was the second out of the inning, Calera wasn’t finished yet.

Aspen Long hit a double to put runners on second and third, and after a passed ball during the next at-bat, Rivera scored to take the lead to 7-1.

Tyde Harrison walked to end the at-bat. During each of the next two at-bats, fielding errors by the Moody infield led to two more runs and loaded up the bases.

Braden Braswell drew a bases-loaded walk to close out the scoring and secure the 10-1 win.

Branton Confer earned the win by allowing just one earned run, one hit and four walks in five innings of play while earning three strikeouts. Tavis Hatch finished the game with two perfect innings and four strikeouts.

On offense, Rhoads went 2-2 with two runs, an RBI and a walk. Ash was also 2-2 on the day with a walk. In all, eight different runners crossed home plate at least once with Rhoads and Johnson doing so twice.

Calera will close out the week with a home matchup against Benjamin Russell on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 1:30 p.m.