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By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles added to their win total against their county foe the Helena Huskies after a big day from one of their star players.

The Eagles made use of the big chances they had on the offense, which set up starting pitcher Kevin Jasinski to have a magnificent performance on the mound on the way to their 5-1 win on Wednesday, March 6 at Oak Mountain High School.

Following a leadoff strikeout to begin the game, the Eagles allowed Jarret Scott to reach on an error before making quick work of the next two batters to get out of the top of the first unaffected.

Oak Mountain then got to work in the bottom half of the inning. Alex Harrison and Peyton Parkinson led the Eagles’ offense off with back-to-back singles. After a fly out, Noah Eady hit another single of his own to load up the bases.

Kaleb Hester hit a sacrifice fly that was deep enough into center field to score a run, giving his team an early 1-0 lead.

After two quick outs to begin the second inning, Davis Kelley got the Huskies going with a double into left field. That set up Carson Acker to send an RBI single into left field, tying the game up 1-1.

Oak Mountain would not do anything in the bottom of the second, which also made for a quick and quiet third inning. Once the fourth started, the threats from both teams began to show once again.

After Jasinski surrendered a leadoff walk to Nicholas Peters to start the inning, he drew a fly out to get the first out under his belt. Hayden Berry then hit an infield single to put two runners on for Helena

Luckily for the Eagles, they turned a double play after a fly out when Reed Hartsfield threw a relay to Eady through Nicholas McCord to catch Peters trying to take third.

Oak Mountain ended the threat and began one of its own.

Following a leadoff fly out to left field, Jasinski decided to do some work at the plate, taking the third pitch of his plate appearance over the left field wall to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.

Oak Mountain came up to the plate again after making quick work of the Huskies in the top of the fifth, and led off the bottom half with a single from Harrison. After a fly out, Hartsfield put another single into play before Eady drew a walk to load the bases.

Then, Hester hit a ground ball to shortstop Caleb Higgins, who made a fielding error which allowed Harrison to score, extending the Eagle lead to 3-1. This gave way for McCord to put a single into left field, driving in two runs and putting the score at 5-1. Jasinski would hit another single, but nothing resulted after that.

Helena’s closest scoring threat throughout the remainder of the game was with two runners on in the seventh, but Owen Edwards came in and closed the game out for an Oak Mountain win.

Jasinski picked up the win, pitching 6.1 innings with three strikeouts, seven hits and one run given up, to go along with the two hits he had at the plate.

Brody Butler picked up the loss for the Huskies, pitching four full innings and giving up two runs on five hits. He had one strikeout.

Oak Mountain continues its run this weekend at the Terry Sikes Memorial Tournament, with four games on the docket. It moved to 9-3 with the win on Wednesday.

Helena dropped to 7-6 on the season and will try to bounce back with a tough game against Auburn on Friday, March 8.