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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions marked their return to Class 5A area play in emphatic fashion as they swept away the Sylacauga Aggies.

Briarwood defeated Sylacauga 10-0 in five innings on Tuesday, March 18 at Briarwood Christian School for the area-opening win before winning 5-2 on the road on Thursday, March 20 to secure the series victory.

After a scoreless first inning in game one that included a Lions triple play, Briarwood got in business in the bottom of the second with a walk and a one-out John Paul Harbor double. Charles Dedmon then scored on the ensuing at-bat to put the hosts up 1-0.

From there, Seth Staggs plated another run off an RBI double on the first pitch before a wild pitch made the lead 3-0.

Houston Hartsfield was then hit by a pitch to load up the bases, and despite taking their second out, the Lions capitalized with an RBI single from Ivan Hand to put them up 4-0 after two innings.

Briarwood kept rolling in the bottom of the third as it set up a pair of scoring plays with a lead-off single followed by a walk. Parker Sfakianos tried to bunt the runners into scoring position but got a lot more than that as he scored a run and advanced to second off an error.

Staggs came up big once again on the ensuing at-bat with a two-run single for the 7-0 lead. He finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run.

A wild pitch and a passed ball in the bottom of the fourth led to two more runs and put Briarwood on the cusp of ending the game by the 10-run rule.

Parker Daniels didn’t wait long into the fifth inning to end it in emphatic fashion. Facing a 1-1 pitch as the lead-off batter, he launched a fly ball over the left field fence for a solo home run and the 10th run of the game.

Hand took the complete-game win with four strikeouts in five shutout innings, working around three hits and a walk to get out unscathed.

The second game required all seven innings to complete as Sylacauga kept the score closer on its home field.

Once again, the first inning came and went without a run from either team. The Lions got a runner off a fielder’s choice play during the second inning, and after using the one-out cushion to advance Brayden Robertson off a sacrifice bunt, Seth Staggs brought him home with an RBI single for the 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless third, Briarwood would add to the lead after it loaded up the bases on the first three batters with a Robertson single followed by an error and a walk. Staggs came up big again as he singled on the first pitch he saw to double up the lead.

Chaos ensured two batters later as a Will Clark ground ball led to an infield error. That plated two of the three runners and increased the lead to 4-0.

Sylacauga responded in the bottom half of the inning by capitalizing on its opportunities. After a walk and a single put two on with one out, an error let the Aggies get on the scoreboard. A wild pitch during the ensuing at-bat then cut the deficit to 4-2, but a double play off a bunt ended the inning shortly after.

That would be Sylacauga’s last chance to respond as Briarwood kept it scoreless the rest of the way. The Lions did add one more run in the top of the seventh as they used a lead-off hit batsman to score off a sacrifice fly and seal the 5-2 win.

Staggs went 2-for-5 with a walk and three RBI while Robertson finished 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs.

Houston Hartsfield threw for six strikeouts in the first five innings, allowing no earned runs and working around a pair of unearned runs, one hit and two walks.

Briarwood improved to 9-11 overall and 2-0 in area play with the wins. The Lions will play in the Buccaneer Classic over spring break from March 26-29 at the Hoover Met Complex, starting on Wednesday, March 26 at 4:30 p.m. against the Tuscaloosa County Wildcats.