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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Spain Park Jaguars defended their home city with four wins in the Jag Classic in Hoover on Saturday, March 9.

Spain Park defeated the East Lawrence Eagles, Brewbaker Tech Rams, Pell City Panthers and Mountain Brook Spartans to get back above .500 with a 10-7 record.

In their first game of the weekend, the Jags took an 8-1 win over East Lawrence behind a six-run first inning.

After a single and a hit by pitch in the bottom of the first, Allie Whitaker plated both runners with a two-run RBI single to open up a 2-0 lead.

Teagan Huey’s single on the ensuing at-bat then led to an RBI single from Ella Ussery for the third run of the inning. Tatum Lasseter then hit into a sacrifice fly to bring home another runner and make the lead four runs.

Hailey Nichols then capped off the inning with a two-run RBI single, putting Spain Park up 6-0 after the first inning.

That score line held until the bottom of the third when Jaley Young hit an RBI double with one out to increase the lead to seven.

East Lawrence got on the board in the top of the fourth with a two-out RBI single, but that would be its only run of the game.

Maggie Daniel capped off the scoring with a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the fourth as the Jags took the 8-1 win.

Young earned the win with six strikeouts in four innings against one run, two hits and a walk.

That set the stage for an even more dominant 9-0 victory over the Brewbaker Tech Rams.

Spain Park opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning from a sacrifice fly and a Whitaker RBI double.

The Jags doubled that 2-0 lead in the top of the third with a two-run home run by Daniel. That paved the way for four more runs in the inning thanks to an RBI single by Reagan Stewart, a wild pitch and a two-run single by Caroline Charles.

With the lead now 8-0, Klara Thompson scored the final run of the game on the last at-bat of the top of the fifth, finishing off the 9-0 win.

Ussery earned the win with a five-inning complete-game shutout, taking nine strikeouts against two hits and three walks. She also went 2-3 in the batter’s box.

Spain Park then faced a much tighter game from Pell City as the showdown went down to the wire.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the first, Daniel launched a solo home run to take a 1-0 lead.

The Panthers answered with two outs in the top of the second with an RBI single to tie the game at 1-1.

The tied ballgame held until the bottom of the fifth when a Charles single and Bennett double put a pair of runners in scoring position with one out. Charles scored during the next at-bat to reclaim the lead for the Jags.

However, Pell City quickly tied up the game again in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single.

In the bottom of the frame, a leadoff walk by Lasseter and a Young single put runners on the corners.

Defensive indifference during the next at-bat allowed Young to get into a scoring position, but after the Panthers earned a strikeout, they intentionally walked Daniel in a bid to earn an inning ending double play.

However, on the second pitch of the ensuing at-bat, Charles hit a line-drive single to score the game-winning run and earn the 3-2 walk off win.

Young pitched a complete game of six innings, earning seven strikeouts without allowing an earned run.

In the final game of the tournament against Mountain Brook, the Spartans scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to take the early lead.

However, the Jags rolled to a five-run response in the top of the second to take a 5-2 lead and didn’t look back from there.

Spain Park added two more runs in the top of the third to extend the lead to 7-2. While Mountain Brook had a three-run bottom of the fourth, it couldn’t close the gap by any more and the Jags earned the 7-5 win.

Spain Park will look to keep its winning ways going in its next game against Hewitt-Trussville on Tuesday, March 12 at 4:30 p.m.