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Aiden Hughes’ heroics headlined a 3-0 week for Chelsea at the Gulf Coast Classic III as he earned a four-inning no hitter and a grand slam against Waverly Central before the Hornets beat Baker and Oak Grove. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

GULF SHORES – The Chelsea Hornets had a productive spring break as they finished the Gulf Coast Classic III without taking a single loss.

Chelsea defeated the Waverly Central Tigers 12-0 in four innings on Tuesday, March 25, the Class 7A Baker Hornets 7-5 on Wednesday, March 26 and the Class 4A No. 1 Oak Grove Tigers 8-7 in eight innings on Thursday, March 27 at the Gulf Shores Sports Complex.

In the first game against Waverly Central, Aiden Hughes was dominant against the Tennessee side, earning a four-inning no-hitter while earning 10 strikeouts against just two walks.

That helped pave the way for Chelsea to keep the game tied until the bottom of the third, when it burst the game wide open with a two-out rally.

After a Chase Lackey double and Cade Mims walk, the Hornets hit five-straight RBI singles off the bats of Brandon Bousman, Aiden Craven, Mack Breazeale, Luke Neill and Logan Carson to take a 5-0 lead.

A Jaxson Dohrman walk on the ensuing at-bat loaded up the bases for Hughes, who put an emphatic cap on the rally with a grand slam to extend the lead to 9-0.

Chelsea kept the scoring going in the fourth inning, capitalizing off a pair of early base runners to score off a Breazeale RBI single, Carson sacrifice fly and Dohrman RBI single to finish off the 12-0 win.

In addition to Hughes’ four RBI off his grand slam, Breazeale had two RBI and two runs on a 2-for-3 day, Neill went 2-for-2 with a walk, an RBI and a run and Carson earned two RBI and a run on a 1-for-2 day.

The next day, Chelsea faced off against Baker in a battle of the Hornets.

After a lead-off triple from Hughes, Lackey hit an RBI single to kick off the scoring. Breazeale doubled up the lead two batters later to give Chelsea a 2-0 lead at the end of the first inning.

Baker cut the deficit in half with a two-out RBI single in the top of the second before rallying for the lead in the third.

Baker capitalized on a one-out single and a walk to tie the game up off an error. The next batter was hit by a pitch ahead of a two-run single that gave them a 4-2 lead.

Chelsea needed until the bottom of the fourth to respond, but it did so decisively. After a Bousman walk and Lackey was hit by a pitch with two outs, Mims launched a three-run home run to left field to take a 5-4 lead. He was the lone Chelsea player with multiple hits as he finished 2-for-4.

Baker had one last bit of offense in the top of the fifth as it tied up the game at 5-5 on a two-out RBI single.

However, after a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth, Chelsea hit two RBI doubles over the course of three at-bats, first off the bat of Carson and then from Dohrman to seal the 7-5 win.

Branson Hogan got the win with 3.2 innings of one-run baseball while pitching around four hits and two walks. Miller Bauman secured the save with a perfect seventh.

Chelsea then finished off the week with a tough test against the top-ranked team in Class 4A in Oak Grove.

After drawing three walks in the top of the first, a balk put the Hornets on the board with a 1-0 lead ahead of the end of the inning. The Tigers responded with an RBI ground out in the bottom half of the inning to tie up the game at 1-1.

The back-and-forth continued into the second inning as Dohrman hit an RBI double to retake the lead ahead of an error at home plate that brought him home for the 3-1 lead.

However, a pair of free base runners led to a big Oak Grove rally as an error cut the deficit to one ahead of a two-run single and another run-scoring error that put the Tigers up 5-3 after two innings.

While the third inning didn’t bring any runs, another error by Oak Grove’s catcher let Chelsea cut the deficit to 5-4 just before the middle of the fourth. The Hornets would then tie the game up once again at 5-5 in the next inning off a passed ball.

Chelsea capitalized off another miscue in the top of the seventh as a hit by pitch with the bases loaded brought home Hughes for the go-ahead run.

Oak Grove then took advantage of the ghost runner on second in the bottom of the seventh by advancing him to third on a sacrifice bunt ahead of a game-tying RBI single. That extended the game into the eighth inning with both teams tied at 6-6.

The Hornets immediately struck in the top of the seventh as Carson ripped a double to second to score the ghost runners Turner and Craven for the 8-6 lead. The Tigers cut the deficit to one in the bottom half of the inning, but they couldn’t tie the game as Mims secured the final strikeout in the 8-6 win.

Mims got the win by pitching the final 3.1 innings without allowing an earned run, striking out five against two hits and a walk.

Hughes went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and a run, Dohrman was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI and Carson finished with two RBI thanks to his go-ahead single in the eighth.

Chelsea improved to 15-9 with the wins and will look to secure its first area win on Tuesday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. on the road against Helena. The second game of the series will be Thursday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chelsea Sports Complex.

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