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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Vincent Yellow Jackets took on a big test to start the 2025 baseball season and they passed with flying colors while getting to play in some of the area’s biggest venues.

Vincent defeated Louisiana’s Archbishop Hannan Hawks 2-0 on Thursday, Feb. 13 at the University of Montevallo before securing the sweep with a 4-1 win on Saturday, Feb. 15 at the Hoover Met Complex.

The Jackets then parlayed that success into an 11-2 win over the West Blocton Tigers on Monday, Feb. 17 in their home opener at Vincent Middle High School.

In the opening game of the season, Vincent went with its young rising star Landon Archer on the mound and got rewarded with an opening day shutout from its pitching staff. The Jackets got two innings of work from Archer, who allowed no runs and surrendered just one hit and three walks.

Archer worked around a leadoff triple to get out of the top of the first, and a pair of errors in the bottom half of the inning led to Casen Fields scoring the first run of the game.

Calvin Johnson took over on the bump for the third inning and dispatched of three straight batters with strikeouts to keep the defensive duel going. He finished the game with four strikeouts across his three innings on the mound while allowing just one hit, one walk and no runs.

Johnson yielded the ball to Fields, who threw for a shutout sixth inning, and that set up another strong offensive inning in Vincent’s half of the frame. After a one-out walk and an Aiden Poe single, Ethan McElrath grounded into a fielder’s choice as Hannan chose to let Grayson Gulde score.

Now sporting a 2-0 lead, the Jackets gave the ball to Poe to finish the job, and outside of a two-out hit batter, the senior was just about perfect, dismissing the other three batters without allowing a hit to secure the save and Vincent’s two-run win.

Poe was the only batter to earn multiple hits for the Jackets as he finished 2-for-3 in addition to his inning on the mound.

Two days later, Vincent was originally set to play at the nation’s oldest ballpark in Rickwood Field, but its game had to be moved to the Hoover Met Complex’s turf field due to poor field conditions.

Regardless, with Poe on the mound, he struck out four of the first five batters he faced to give the Jackets an opening at the plate.

A walk and a hit batsman put two men on for Johnson, who sacrificed himself to advance both runners into scoring position. The Hawks pitcher had trouble handling a ground ball on Dakota Newton’s at bat and allowed both runners to score, giving Vincent a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.

Poe continued to deal on the mound and keep Hannan at bay until the bottom of the fourth, when a two-out RBI triple put the Hawks on the board and cut the deficit to 2-1 just past the halfway mark.

The fifth and sixth innings came and went without a run as the game continued to hang in the balance.

However, that changed in the top of the seventh when a Fields single and Gulde fielder’s choice put runners on the corners with no outs. On the next pitch, Archer grounded out to score Fields and make it a 3-1 game.

Hannan tried to get around Poe for a fourth time with a walk, but it couldn’t stop throwing balls during McElrath’s ensuing at-bat. Gulde stole third with a 3-0 count, and after the Hawks tried to pick off Poe at first, Poe and Gulde executed a double steal that allowed Gulde to steal home.

Poe then orchestrated a one-two-three bottom of the seventh to cap the 4-1 win and the series sweep. He earned the win in a complete game, striking out 11 batters while allowing five hits, one earned run and no walks.

Vincent then came home on Monday, Feb. 17 for a Presidents Day battle with West Blocton.

With Gulde earning the start, the Jackets took early damage off a walk and an infield error in the top of the first. Gulde recovered to dispatch the next two batters, but another infield error made the score 1-0 Tigers.

Despite the struggles around him, Gulde finished his three-inning outing with seven strikeouts without allowing any hits or earned runs. He surrendered just three walks in the process.

The Jackets quickly knotted the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the inning with an Archer sacrifice fly, scoring Fields, who hit a lead-off single before stealing second and reaching third off a groundout.

After a scoreless second, another error with two outs in the top of the third put West Blocton up 2-1. However, that would be the last time the visitors would lead.

With the self-inflicted wounds behind them, Vincent erupted in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding lead.

McElrath scored off an error after quickly making his way around the bases following his leadoff walk. Another error gave way to a Keller Finn RBI single on the first pitch, scoring Johnson to take a 3-2 lead.

Aiden Gasaway followed up a double steal with an RBI single before a sacrifice fly brought Finn home from third, making the lead 5-2. A walk and a hit batsman then led to two more runs to end the inning, first off a Poe sacrifice fly and then off a passed ball.

Vincent built on that 7-2 lead with a four-run fifth, including three runs off errors and an RBI double from Archer to cap the 11-2 win.

Fields led the team with a 2-for-3 day while earning one run and one RBI. Newton and Gasaway each crossed home plate twice while Archer had two RBI off a 1-for-2 day.

Fields also earned the win on the mound, pitching three shutout innings in relief while allowing just two hits and one run. Gasaway took the save with a perfect seven inning, including two strikeouts.

Vincent will have a quick turnaround before its game on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 4:30 p.m. against the Altamont Knights at home at Vincent Middle High School.