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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Spain Park Jaguars capitalized on their early scoring opportunities to build up a lead they would not relinquish against the Vestavia Hills Rebels.

Spain Park defeated Vestavia Hills 7-2 on Tuesday, April 1 at Spain Park High School as the Jags raised awareness for ovarian cancer as part of a special night.

After a scoreless first inning, two walks and an error put the Jags in business in the bottom of the second. Reagan Roberts plated the opening run off a sacrifice fly before an infield error during the next at-bat helped the Jags extend the lead to 2-0 after the second.

Chloe Wade started out the home half of the third with a single, and she came home immediately afterwards when an error off a Klara Thompson ground ball took the Mercer commit all the way to the third.

Two batters later, Tatum Lasseter came up with an RBI single to take the lead to 4-0.

Spain Park worked around a pair of walks in the top of the fourth to preserve the shutout, and the Jags quickly got a pair of runners off a hit by pitch and a single at the start of the inning.

After both runners advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, an error off a Wade ground ball plated both Roberts and Weiner for the 6-0 lead.

The Jags followed that up with a two-out rally of three-straight singles in the bottom of the fifth. The last of those singles took the lead to 7-0 as Charlee Bennett sent one into center that capped off the scoring for the hosts.

Vestavia Hills broke through in the top of the sixth after a pair of hits and a hit batter loaded up the bases. The Rebels then got on the board with an RBI single and earned another run off an error two batters later, but Spain Park shut down their bats from there to seal the 7-2 win.

Wade finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run and Weiner went 2-for-3 with a run.

Jaley Young earned the win with four scoreless innings, striking out three batters against four walks and two hits.

The Jags improved to 18-12 with the win and will next play the Woodlawn Colonels on Thursday, April 3 at 5 p.m. as part of senior night for Spain Park.