Shelby County wins offensive duel at Briarwood to take first area victory

Published 2:54 pm Tuesday, March 18, 2025

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Shelby County Wildcats are back on track as they snapped a three-game losing streak in wild fashion on the road at a local area foe in the Briarwood Christian Lions.

Shelby County defeated Briarwood 16-10 on Monday, March 17 at Briarwood Christian School to secure its first area win of the year.

As a result, the Wildcats improved to 6-3 overall and 1-1 in area play as they look to make their return to regionals.

For the combined 26 runs between the county foes though, it took until the bottom of the third for one of them to get onto the scoreboard. Larsen Cummings was dominant to start in the pitching circle, striking out six of the first seven Shelby County batters.

After another strong inning in the top of the third, the Lions went to work at the plate in the home half of the inning. Abigail Coker’s single and a walk from Ashley Heinemann set up Cummings to provide her own run support with an RBI single.

Two batters later, Macie Johnson overcame a two-out hole with a two-run RBI double, and after reaching third on the throw, she came home during the next at-bat off a wild pitch for the 4-0 lead.

However, the Wildcats responded in a big way in the top of the fourth. After a lead-off single from Kaydence Connell, a pair of errors brought her home for her team’s first run. Aaliyah Chaisson followed that up on the next pitch with a double, bringing one run home herself before she came home off an error.

Madison Tolleson and Angel Vick hit back-to-back singles and reached scoring position off a sacrifice bunt, but a strikeout dropped Shelby County into a two-out spot. Caitlan Bland stepped up and scored not just the tying run, but the go-ahead run thanks to a two-run single for the 5-4 lead.

Briarwood quickly tied up the game in the bottom of the fourth as a Scout Staggs lead-off single led to a Taylor Forrester RBI triple. A pop out and a walk later, Forrester scored during a double play after tagging up on third, putting the Lions up 6-5.

The Wildcats knotted up the game at 6-6 in the top of the fifth thanks to a two-out error in the infield. While they couldn’t get the go-ahead run in the fifth, they capitalized off a lead-off triple from Madelyn Minton in the top of the sixth to get that and more.

Catelynn Davis took the lead two pitches after the triple with an RBI single, and she came home after a bunt from Kloe Gallups led to chaos. After a Briarwood pitching change, Connell made it a 9-6 lead with an RBI single.

While the next batter got out, Chaisson gave her team its second triple of the inning to resume the scoring. That was the first of three-straight scoring hits as Tolleson’s RBI single and Vick’s RBI double on back-to-back pitches put Shelby County in front 12-6.

The Lions wouldn’t recapture the lead, but they didn’t go down without a fight. Staggs opened the bottom of the sixth with a single to set up Forrester’s RBI double, scoring the first of four runs in the inning.

Heinemann plated a run off a line out before a Cummings RBI single and Zora Willingham RBI double cut the deficit to 12-10 with just one out in the inning.

Chaisson recovered with back-to-back strikeouts to close the inning, and three-straight run-scoring errors and a Tolleson RBI single put the game away in the top of the seventh as the Wildcats secured the 16-10 win.

Connell, Vick and Tolleson each went 3-for-5 as Tolleson had two RBI and two runs while Vick secured a run and an RBI and Connell finished with two runs and an RBI. Chaisson also had a multi-hit day as she went 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI on top of her eight strikeouts in the circle.

Cummings went 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBI and two runs while striking out 11 batters in 6.1 innings. Just three of the 13 runs that happened in that time were charged to her as Briarwood committed nine errors over the course of the game.

Staggs and Willingham each went 2-for-4 as Staggs scored two runs while Willingham had an RBI double, and Forrester finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs. Johnson also earned two RBI in a 1-for-4 day.

Shelby County will continue area play on Thursday, March 20 as it hosts the Central Volunteers of Clay County at 4:30 p.m. at Shelby County High School in the final game before spring break.

The Lions dropped to 4-6-1 and will travel to Pelham on Thursday, March 20 at 4:30 p.m. for their last game before a week-and-a-half-long break.

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