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Chelsea swept a midweek series with local foe Briarwood as it fought through a back-and-forth Tuesday meeting ahead of a compete performance on Thursday. (For the Reporter/Cari Dean)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Chelsea Hornets and Briarwood Christian Lions squared off in a rare occurrence for non-area teams: a two-game series in the same week. In the end, it was the Hornets who walked away with both victories as they secured the series win over their local foe.

Chelsea won the first meeting 9-5 on Tuesday, March 4 at the Chelsea Sports Complex before it beat Briarwood 10-0 on Thursday, March 6 at Briarwood Christian School.

In the first game of the series, the Hornets used a lead-off triple in the bottom of the first from Aiden Hughes to bring him home off a ground out to take the 1-0 lead.

Chelsea then capitalized off a pair of two-out walks to keep the inning alive long enough for Cade Mims to hit a single. That hit caused an infield error that allowed Hughes to come home and double up the lead.

While Briarwood couldn’t get around Hornets starter Paxton Stallings in the first four innings, it started out the fifth inning strong to respond in a big way.

The first five Lions batters of the inning all reached base, and after Parker Sfakianos, Seth Staggs and Parker Daniels loaded up the bases, Ivan Hand quickly tied up the game with a two-run single. A wild pitch and an RBI ground out then gave Briarwood a 4-2 lead shortly after trailing 2-0.

Chelsea responded with its own big stretch in the bottom of the fifth, earning four straight hits. A single from Aiden Craven and a double from Aiden Hughes gave way to a two-run single from Chase Lackey to tie the game up at 4-4.

The Lions made a pitching change immediately afterwards, but Mims still gave the Hornets the 5-4 lead with an RBI double on the ensuing at-bat.

Briarwood responded by tying the game up at 5-5 in the top of the sixth with a big two-out single from Daniels after Staggs kept the inning alive.

Chelsea got three-straight singles to start the bottom of the inning that spelled the end of the Lions’ chances. A Lackey two-run single and runs off a Mims ground ball and a Mack Breazeale sacrifice fly gave the Hornets a four-run lead that Briarwood couldn’t overcome.

Luke Neill got three of his four strikeouts in the top of the seventh and got the win with three innings of one-run baseball.

Lackey finished 2-for-3 with a walk, four RBI and two runs, Hughes was 2-for-3 with a walk and four runs, Craven finished 2-for-3 with two runs and Mims got three RBI in a 2-for-4 day for the Hornets.

Briarwood was led by Staggs, who was 3-for-4 with two runs while Charles Dedmon finished 3-for-4. Hand’s two-RBI single was the highlight of his 1-for-4 game.

In the return game at Briarwood, Chelsea was in control on the mound and used it to set up a shorter night for the offense.

Grant Hill got the win by starting the game with five strikeouts in three shutout innings despite having to work around four walks.

Silas Osbourn and Miller Bauman carried the load from there as Osbourn got three strikeouts in two shutout innings and Bauman had a shutout sixth. Both relief pitchers finished with just one hit and no walks to their name.

Chelsea got on the board early after using three-straight walks to start the game to set up a two-run single from Paxton Stallings for the 2-0 lead. Lackey made the advantage 3-0 in the bottom of the third with a run off an error.

Then, two early base-runners in the top of the fourth helped the Hornets bust the lead wide open. Chelsea scored on four-straight plays, starting with RBI singles from Craven and Lackey ahead of a run coming home off a fielder’s choice and then a Stallings RBI single.

Those plays took the lead to 7-0 as the game crossed the midway mark.

While the Hornets couldn’t add to the lead in the fifth, they went to work in the top of the sixth despite facing a two-out hole. With two runners on thanks to singles earlier in the inning, Stallings plated a run with an RBI single before Jackson Price came home off an outfield error.

With the lead at 9-0 and a runner on, three-straight walks plated the 10th unanswered run of the game, and Chelsea finished the job by getting three of the four Briarwood batters out in the bottom of the inning.

Hughes was 3-for-3 with a walk, three runs and an RBI, and Stallings finished 3-for-4 with four RBI and a run. Lackey went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI.

The Hornets improved to 9-6 with the wins and will face Smiths Station in a doubleheader on Saturday, March 8 at 11 a.m. at Chelsea High School.

The Lions dropped to 6-6 and will host Prattville and Calera on Saturday, March 8, with the game against the Class 7A Lions at noon and a county battle against the Eagles set to start at 5 p.m.

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