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Helena got back on track as the Huskies made the short trip to Calera and beat the Eagles behind a big second inning for the offense and strong pitching from Marlee Parsons and Carrington Schiefer. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CALERA – The Helena Huskies got just one hit in their Tuesday, Feb. 26 game against Thompson to earn just their second loss of the season, but a day later, they earned 13 hits and nine runs to get back to winning ways.

Helena defeated the Calera Eagles 9-1 on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in a mid-week county battle at the Eagle Sports Complex in Calera.

After the first two Helena batters of the game got out, Lily Sanderson and Destiny Brashears reached base off walks to set up Hayden Traywick with two on and two out. She singled to right and scored the opening run of the game, but the Huskies couldn’t stretch it into two runs as the inning ended.

The second inning came and went without a run, but another Sanderson walk preceded big offense for Helena. Brashears, Traywick and Tatum Cooper each hit RBI doubles on the next three at-bats to make it a 4-0 lead. That left one runner on for Baleigh Sprouse, who got an RBI triple to cap off the four-straight scoring hits.

The next two batters grounded out, but the latter produced a run as Sprouse scored off an Izzy Vice out to short to finish the five-run inning and six-run lead.

Calera then got on the board in the bottom of the fourth after Mia Wade reached on a lead-off walk and came home off back-to-back two-out errors, cutting the deficit to 6-1 in the process.

Helena struck back in the top of the fifth. Gracie Storey started the inning with a lead-off single ahead of a hit by pitch and a walk to load up the bases. Addison Draiss hit into a fly out afterwards but restored the six-run lead in the process.

On the next pitch, Sanderson doubled to center to take the lead to 8-1 at the end of the fifth.

Helena plated one last run in the top of the sixth as Cooper’s lead-off double turned into a one-out RBI single from Storey.

Lily Abernathy nearly hit one over the fence in the seventh inning, but the Huskies still took the eight-run win to improve to 11-2 on the season.

Storey went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run while Traywick finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run. Cooper and Sprouse each secured 2-for-4 days as Cooper had a walk, an RBI and two runs while Sprouse finished with an RBI and a run.

Parsons took the win with six strikeouts in five innings against one unearned run, two hits and a walk. Carrington Schiefer secured the save, bouncing back from a rough start against Helena with two shutout innings while allowing just two hits and no walks.

Wade was the lone Calera player to earn multiple hits as she went 2-for-2 with a walk.

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