By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Reporter

BIRMIMGHAM – The Calera baseball Eagles have had a tough opening stretch of the season, but took a step in the right direction on March 17 with a 9-7 win over Shades Mountain Christian School.

Calera used a pitch-by-committee approach to the matchup, using Tyler Oclair, Austin Mckinney, Matthew Marfice and Devin Buckhannon in successive order from the mound on the day, and none pitched over three innings.

Calera jumped on top of Shades Mountain early, taking a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. After Will Glasscock drew a leadoff walk and moved to second when Oclair grounded out, he scored when Marfice singled to left field to start the scoring. Dylan Reddin, Kevin Dowdell and Matthew Young all also got hits in the inning to help build the lead.

The Eagles of Calera also added three more runs over the next two innings to advance their lead to 7-2. However Shades Mountain began to mount a comeback in the fifth, scoring three runs and bringing Calera’s lead back in to a manageable 7-5.

Gaines and Marfice both scored in the sixth inning when Gaines hit a hard ground ball to the left fielder, who mishandled the ball to the point where both base runners were brought home. Calera turned out to need both runs, as Shades Mountain made a late push to tie or take the lead.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, with Buckhannon on the mound to close the game out, the Eagles of Shades Mountain scraped two runs across the plate before the game ended when Buckhannon forced David Dickinson to hit into a game-ending double play.

Marfice not only threw two scoreless innings for Calera, he also led the Eagles from the plate, going 3-4 with two RBIs and a double. Reddin, Young and Buckhannon all had two hits on the day as well to help lead Calera to their second win of the year.