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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Spain Park Jaguars made an impact in their first area game of the season as they defeated the Pelham Panthers in a big offensive performance.

Spain Park beat Pelham 11-1 in six innings on Wednesday, March 5 at Spain Park High School to start out its Class 6A, Area 8 slate with a victory.

Pelham got an early chance to make an impact by drawing a pair of one-out walks before a fielder’s choice play left the bases loaded with two outs. However, Provost finished the inning with her third strikeout to that point to keep the game scoreless.

That proved crucial as the Jags’ first four batters of the game reached base. After a Charlee Bennett walk and a Jordan Weiner bunt single, Klara Thompson’s sacrifice attempt led to an error and the opening run of the game. Spain Park would then take the lead to 3-0 off a passed ball during the ensuing at-bat.

Both pitchers continued tossing strikeouts during the early innings of the game, but the Jags were the ones to capitalize once again on their opportunities to score.

Tatum Lasseter began the home half of the second with a single, and two batters later, Bennett reached off an error while trying to sacrifice herself. She would reach base and lead to an RBI single from Weiner followed by a sacrifice fly from Thompson that put the Jags up 5-0.

Maxie Provost then drew a walk to put two on for Allie Whitaker, who launched a three-run home run to clear the bases and increase the lead to 8-0 just before the end of the inning.

Pelham then looked as if it would strike when the first two batters of the third reached, but the Jags would get the next seven Panthers batters out.

After a scoreless third, Bennett led off the bottom of the fourth with a double off a 2-0 county before Weiner hit a bunt single to put runners on the corners. While Weiner would get out at second, Thompson sent a line drive to left to bring Bennett home for the ninth run of the game.

After a pitching change for Spain Park, the Panthers got a golden opportunity to get on the board in the top of the fifth thanks to an error that allowed Taylor Howard to reach base and a walk off a full count to Jordan Young. Emery Plunkett capitalized with an RBI double that brought Howard home and cut the deficit to 9-1.

Spain Park got out of the inning and secured an early base runner in the bottom of the fifth when Chloe Wade was hit by a pitch. The Jags played small ball from there, bringing her home off a pair of fly outs after she stole second base.

A lead off error in the top of the sixth put Bennett on second, and she came home off wild pitch followed by a Thompson sacrifice fly to end the game off the run rule.

Weiner led the offense with a 3-for-4 game with two runs and an RBI. Bennett finished with four runs while going 1-for-2 with a walk, Thompson had four RBI thanks to her multiple sacrifice flies and Whitaker had three RBI and a run as a result of her three-run home run.

Provost got the win with four shutout innings while securing seven strikeouts against one hit and four walks.

Spain Park improved to 9-4 with the win and 1-0 in area play. They will host the Jag Classic at the Hoover Met Complex on March 7-8 for their next games.

Pelham dropped to 2-4 and 0-1 in area play and will face off against rival Helena on Thursday, March 6 at 4:30 p.m. at Pelham High School.