By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – The All-Star squads for the 2016 North-South baseball and softball games were announced on April 21, and the lists include three athletes from Shelby County. The teams are each comprised of 18 of the top juniors and were chosen from nominations submitted by high school coaches from across the state.

On the softball side, Spain Park’s Mary Katherine Tedder will represent the Lady Jaguars for the North. Tedder is a 5-foot-8-inch junior infielder who has been committed to the University of Texas since 2013. She has led Spain Park to a 27-12 record as of April 22, and has led the Lady Jags to a No. 6 record in class 7A as well. Tedder finished her sophomore year with 65 hits, four home runs, 39 RBIs, a .439 batting average and a .655 slugging percentage. The stats at the end of her junior season will be as impressive if not more so.

Oak Mountain High School is approximately 2.5 miles south of Spain Park High School, but for the purposes of the North-South All-Star game, Spain Park is considered a northern school while Oak Mountain has been dubbed a southern school. Oak Mountain first baseman and Mississippi State commit O’Neil Roberson will be representing the Lady Eagles in a South jersey. Roberson has led Oak Mountain to a No. 8 rank in 7A and the Lady Eagles were 19-9 as of April 22, and has hit 14 homers this year to go along with a batting average that was over .500 as of April 22.

The only baseball player to have made the cut on either All-Star roster is Spain Park’s Will Battersby. Battersby is a 6-foot-2-inch pitcher/outfielder who helped lead the Jaguars to a 22-20 finish in 2016. Battersby threw four complete games for Spain Park in 2016, going 3-1 in those games, and in his six starts for the Jaguars never went less than 6.1 innings of work. Spain Park head coach Will Smith has also been chosen as one of the coaches for the North as well.

The North-South baseball doubleheader will be at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery on Tuesday, July 19, with the first game set to start at 4 p.m. Lagoon Park will host the North-South softball games at 6 and 8 p.m. on the same day, per a press release from the AHSAA.