1 of 12

The Chelsea Hornets relied on strong pitching and timely offensive plays to secure a crucial sweep of the Helena Huskies that left both teams tied for the final playoff spot in Class 6A, Area 8 going into the season’s final week. (For the Reporter/Robert Dean)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Chelsea Hornets regained ground in Class 6A, Area 8 with a pair of victories over the Helena Huskies to sweep the area series.

Chelsea secured a 4-2 win over Helena on Tuesday, April 1 at Helena High School before finishing off the series win with a 5-3 victory on Thursday, April 3 at the Chelsea Sports Complex.

With that and the 1-1 series split between Spain Park and Pelham, Helena and Chelsea are tied for second place in the area with 2-2 records, with Spain Park in first with a 3-1 record and Pelham in fourth at 1-3.

Game one saw two of the best aces in Shelby County duel through the first three innings: Chelsea’s Aiden Hughes and Helena’s Brayden Dockery. The pair each went scoreless through the first three innings despite having to work around multiple base runners.

That all changed in the top of the fourth when the first two Chelsea batters reached and advanced to scoring position off a Paxton Stallings sacrifice bunt.

The play set up Luke Neill to open up the scoring with an RBI single before a Logan Carson ground out took the lead to 2-0.

Helena quickly responded with a lead-off single from Braydon Kendrick that led to its first run of the game two batters later. Sam Odom’s ground ball to second led to an error and Kendrick crossing home plate to halve the deficit.

While the next batter grounded out, a passed ball on two strikes and two outs brought Odom home for the tying run.

Chelsea wasted little time throwing its counterpunch, which this time proved to be the knockout blow. After Jaxson Dohrman started the top of the fifth with a single, Hughes provided his own run support with an RBI triple to retake the 3-2 lead.

He came home from third two batters later off a Cade Mims sacrifice bunt to increase the lead to 4-2, and that held through the final three innings as the Hornets kept Helena quiet at the plate. Paxton Stallings got the save with five-straight retired batters to end the game.

Hughes threw for 10 strikeouts on the mound across 5.1 innings to take the win. Both of the runs that came home were unearned, and he allowed just two hits and three walks. He also went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI triple and a run.

Mack Breazeale also had a multi-hit game as he went 2-for-4 with a run.

Two days later, the Hornets wasted little time setting themselves up for success as they capitalized off Helena errors to take an early lead.

Hughes hit a lead-off single before reaching second on a sacrifice, and Mims walked to put two on for Breazeale. Two separate errors occurred during the play to allow both runners to come home and Chelsea to take a 2-0 lead.

Helena limited the damage in the first to just those two runs and got the benefit of an error to start the second. Lane Harris reached second off the error before going to third on a ground out, and he came home thanks to an RBI single from Hudson Campbell to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Jonathan Roberto’s ground out helped Campbell make it to second before a Nate Jones RBI single let him cross home plate. However, Mims threw out Jones at second to end the inning and leave the score tied at 2-2.

More chaos ensued in the bottom of the second when Luke Neill reached on a lead-off error before Logan Carson was hit by a pitch. Dohrman advanced both runners to scoring position to bring Hughes to the plate with one out.

Hughes sent a ground ball back to the mound, and an error let Neill come home for the go-ahead run. That gave Lackey a pair of base runners to drive home with a first-pitch, line-drive double to center to increase the lead to 5-2.

After a scoreless third, Helena got a chance to respond in the top of the fourth. Harris drew a lead-off walk to force a pitching change, and Odom followed that up with a single. Two batters later, Roberto was hit by a pitch to load up the bases.

While Chelsea got a strikeout to get to two outs, Brett Cannon drew a five-pitch walk to cut the gap to 5-3.

However, Stallings slammed the door shut from there, getting out of the fourth without allowing another run before escaping a two-on jam in the top of the fifth. He ended his day with four punch-outs across two innings of relief.

After Neill came in and worked a quick sixth inning, trouble ensued to start the seventh inning as Helena was down to its last chance to respond. Nick Peters hit a ground ball to second to begin the inning, but the throw to first drew the Hornets off the bag and let him get to second.

Neill recovered with a strikeout, but Harris then drew a walk to put two on with one out. From there, he worked an infield fly ball and a ground out to short to end the threat.

Jackson Price got the win by allowing just one earned run in the first three innings, working around another pair of unearned runs along with four hits and two walks. Neill got the two-inning save, striking out three batters while allowing no hits and one walk.

Brody Butler was a bright spot for Helena as he struck out five batters in 3.2 shutout innings of relief, allowing just one hit and no walks in the process to try and give his team a chance.

Odom was the lone Husky with multiple hits in a 2-for-4 day as Cannon, Campbell and Jones each earned an RBI.

The Hornets improved to 17-9 overall and will look to finish off area play strong with their final series against the Pelham Panthers. Game one will be Tuesday, April 8 at 6 p.m. at the Chelsea Sports Complex before game two takes place on Thursday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Pelham High School.

Helena dropped to 16-12 overall ahead of its final non-area game on the year on Saturday, April 5 at 11 a.m. at Helena High School against the Hoover Buccaneers.

The Huskies will face Spain Park in game one of their area series on Tuesday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. before game two on Thursday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Spain Park High School.

More Sports

Pelham, Spain Park split area baseball series as pitchers shine

Briarwood sweeps area series with Shelby County to remain perfect in area play

Oak Mountain honors 16 seniors in shutout win over Westminster OM, stays undefeated

Chelsea returns from spring break with commanding win over Susan Moore