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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions continued rolling as they squared off with one of the top teams in Class 6A and emerged with a win in an extra-innings duel.

Briarwood defeated the Spain Park Jaguars 6-5 in eight innings on Saturday, April 5 at Briarwood Christian School for its sixth win in the past seven games.

After a scoreless first inning, both teams got multiple free base runners in the second as the Jags loaded up the bases on a walk, hit by pitch and an error while the Lions drew a pair of walks in the bottom half of the inning. However, neither team plated a run as the game remained scoreless.

That changed in the bottom of the third when a walk and a Seth Staggs single got Briarwood in business with one out. Houston Hartsfield opened up the scoring with an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead.

Then, Parker Daniels sent a ground ball to third and Spain Park tried to get Staggs out at home. It failed though and led to a 2-0 lead.

After a pitching change to start the bottom of the fourth, an Ivan Hand double and Will Burgess bunt single quickly got the Lions in position to strike. Using the cushion with no outs on the scoreboard, Parker Sfakianos got an RBI ground out to increase the lead to 3-0.

The fifth inning came and went without a run, but Briarwood used a Sfakianos walk in the sixth to start a two-out rally. Staggs doubled to left to score him from first for the 4-0 lead, and after Staggs reached third on a passed ball, Hartsfield hit an RBI double to the 5-0 lead.

However, a string of errors in the top of the seventh nearly saw it all crash down for Briarwood.

Back-to-back errors to start the seventh put two on with no outs, and two batters later, more trouble at third put the Jags on the board for the first time.

Connor Greb then singled on the next pitch to score Joe Cross and cut the deficit to 5-2. That was the first of back-to-back singles before Spain Park equalized on the ensuing at-bat.

A passed ball brought Nash Davis home from third, and two pitches after that, another infield error plated two more runs and tied the game up at 5-5.

A fifth error of the inning and a hit batter loaded up the bases for the Jags, but the Lions ended the rally with a double-play after a pitching change. Briarwood couldn’t respond in the bottom of the seventh, sending the teams to extras.

After Spain Park couldn’t get a lead-off hit batter home, the Lions drew two walks to start the home half of the eighth. A line out to center advanced Will Burgess to third and put runners on the corners for Hartsfield, who hit a fly ball deep in left field to score him and earn the walk-off win.

Hartsfield was 2-for-4 with three RBI while Staggs finished 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI. Cross led Spain Park with a 2-for-5 day and a run.

The Lions will finish out area play against Central-Clay County with game one set for Tuesday, April 8 at 4:30 p.m. at Central High School in Lineville before games two and three on Thursday, April 10 at 4:30 p.m. at Briarwood Christian School.

Spain Park will close out its area slate with a crucial series against Helena. That will begin on Tuesday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Helena High School before game two on Thursday, April 10 at the same time at Spain Park High School.