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Oak Mountain dominated Cullman and survived late rallies from Leeds and Tennessee’s Houston to finish the Buccaneer Classic with a 3-1 record. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Oak Mountain Eagles came into spring break fresh off taking a doubleheader at Choccolocco Park on March 20 by beating Benjamin Russell 5-4 and D.W. Daniel 11-1, and they briefly extended their win streak to five games during the Buccaneer Classic as they hit their stride ahead of area play.

Oak Mountain defeated the Cullman Bearcats 12-1 in six innings on Thursday, March 27 ahead of an 8-7 win over the Leeds Greenwave and 7-5 10-inning victory over Tennessee’s Houston Mustangs on Friday, March 27 at the Hoover Met Complex.

The Eagles would go on to lose their final game of the tournament 6-0 to the Auburn High School Tigers on Saturday, March 29, but they still finished the tournament with a 3-1 record to improve to 15-9 on the year.

In the first game of the tournament against Cullman, Oak Mountain came flying out of the gate with a six-run first inning. After a pair of hit batters and a double to load up the bases, Noah Eady started a run of four-straight scoring plays with an RBI single.

That was followed by a William Yoder RBI single, an RBI ground out from Benjamin Heath and a Cole Kelly two-run triple to open up a 5-0 lead. Two batters later, Kelly came home on a dropped third strike to increase the lead to 6-0 ahead of the end of the inning.

After surviving three walks in the bottom of the first, Eady and Heath plated another pair of runs in the top of the second as each of them had an RBI single to increase the lead to 8-0.

That lead held until the bottom of the fourth when the Bearcats interrupted a strong pitching performance from Austin Senick with a two-out RBI single, cutting the deficit to 8-1.

That would be their only run of the game as Oak Mountain rallied for a four-run top of the sixth to get into run-rule territory.

With one out and one on from a lead-off single and a stolen base, Gabe Jones started the rally with an RBI single. Eady followed that up with a double to put two in scoring position for Yoder. He and Heath hit back-to-back RBI singles to score the runners and make it an 11-1 game.

Yoder would later come home off a passed ball to finish off the 12-1 win.

Baker Williams took the win with a pair of hitless innings to begin the game, striking out five against four walks. Senick came in from there and struck out seven against one run, five hits and two walks in three innings of relief, and Rob Wilson pitched a perfect sixth to take the win.

Heath led the offense with three RBI off a 2-for-4 day. Eady went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI, Yoder was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs and Kelly earned two RBI in a 1-for-4 performance.

The next day, the Eagles had to survive some late pressure from Leeds to see out the victory.

After a scoreless first two innings, Oak Mountain loaded up the bases to start the third thanks to singles from Zach Fitzgerald and Will O’Dell and Hughes getting hit by a pitch.

Two batters later, Prier hit a ground ball to short that scored Fitzgerald for the opening run. Then, chaos ensued during Jones’ ensuing at-bat as O’Dell stole home and Prier scored off an error at home plate, increasing the lead to 3-0.

The Eagles then filled the base paths again in the top of the fourth with one out, and Hughes capped off the sequence with a two-run double to score Kelly and Fitzgerald for the 5-0 lead.

However, an error and a hit by pitch in the bottom of the fourth allowed the Greenwave to cut the deficit to 5-2.

Fitzgerald would restore that five-run lead in the top of the fifth when he singled to left and scored both Jones and Kelly for the 7-2 lead.

While a wild pitch led Leeds make the score 7-3 in the bottom of the frame, an Eady RBI double with two outs in the top of the fifth was all Oak Mountain needed to take the lead to 8-3.

Hughes followed that up in the next inning with an even bigger piece of two-out offense–an RBI triple to score Fitzgerald and make it a 9-3 ball game going into the bottom of the seventh.

Leeds wouldn’t go down without a fight and put together a big string of offense after being reduced to its last out.

After a passed ball cut the gap to five, a walk kept the inning alive for three-straight hits, two of which scored to runs to make it a 9-7 game. Oak Mountain then made a pitching change and Yoder dispatched Leeds within two at-bats to take the win.

Fitzgerald went 3-for-3 with a walk, three runs and two RBI while Hughes finished 2-for-3 with three RBI.

Oak Mountain finished out the day with a marathon against Houston.

The Mustangs went ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the second, but an Owen Edwards triple got the Eagles in business in the top of the third. Two runs reached off errors before Eady gave Oak Mountain the 3-2 lead with a one-out RBI single.

Houston got a pair of free base runners in the bottom of the fourth and used a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly to tie the game up at 3-3.

The Eagles quickly retook the lead in the top of the fifth, using a lead-off single from Jones to set up a one-out RBI double from Yoder for the 4-3 lead. The next inning, Oak Mountain capitalized off a two-out walk to let Prier drive home a run off an RBI triple, making it a 5-3 game.

However, the Mustangs knotted the game up at nearly their last chance to. After hitting a lead-off single in the bottom of the seventh, they launched a two-run home run to tie the game at 5-5 and forced extra innings.

After the eighth and ninth innings couldn’t separate the two sides, Heath’s lead-off single to start the 10th proved to be the start of the winning rally. Heath reached second off a sacrifice bunt, and two batters later, the Eagles made their move.

With two outs on the board, Hughes and Edwards hit back-to-back RBI doubles to take a 7-5 lead. Rob Wilson then finished off the win in the bottom half of the inning to seal the victory.

Wilson got the win with four shutout innings, allowing just four hits and two walks over the course of the seventh through 10th innings.

Prier earned two RBI in a 1-for-6 game while Edwards, Eady, Yoder and Heath each went 2-for-5. Edwards earned a walk, two runs and an RBI, Eady had an RBI and a run, Jones earned a run and Yoder got an RBI.

Oak Mountain would finish out the tournament with a 6-0 loss to Auburn. After a scoreless first five innings, the Tigers put five on the board in the top of the sixth off a bases-loaded walk and a grand slam to pave the way for the victory.

The Eagles will play their first of four games against the Hoover Buccaneers on Tuesday, April 1 at 6 p.m. at Hoover High School. Oak Mountain will finish the area series on Wednesday, April 2 at home and Thursday, April 3 at Hoover.

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