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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PIKE ROAD – The Oak Mountain Eagles brought home some hardware after they claimed the Pike Road Patriot Classic title on Saturday, April 6 at Pike Road High School.

Oak Mountain finished the tournament with a 4-1 record as they beat Montgomery Catholic, Alabama Christian Academy, the hosts Pike Road and Brewbaker Tech, who the Eagles lost to earlier in the tournament.

In the first game of the tournament against Montgomery Catholic, Anna DuBose used a one-out double by Sheridan Andrews to hit an RBI single and take a 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless second inning, Oak Mountain started the third inning with four straight singles. The second one in the sequence was another DuBose RBI single, and two batters later, a Carolyn Graham bunt single led to an error that scored all three runners, including DuBose.

With the lead at 5-0 going into the top of the fourth, an Alea Rye RBI double, Graham home run and Emma McGregor RBI single finished off the 9-0 win.

DuBose finished the game 3-for-3 with two RBI, joining Graham and McGregor with a multiple RBI game.

Sophia Williams took the win with four shutout innings, taking two strikeouts against five hits and a walk.

After ending the day with a tight 3-2 loss to Brewbaker Tech, the Eagles kicked off Saturday with a comeback walk-off win over Alabama Christian.

The first inning came and went without a run, but with two on and two out in the top of the second, Alabama Christian got on the board with an RBI single to go up 1-0.

They doubled that lead in the top of the third after a two-out error allowed a runner to reach base, and Alabama Christian got on the board from there with an RBI double.

The situation looked even bleaker for Oak Mountain after back-to-back RBI singles with two outs in the top of the fifth, increasing the deficit to 5-0.

However, a Brooke Monosky triple opened up the floodgates for Oak Mountain to have a massive half inning in the bottom of the fifth.

Bella Williams kicked it off with an RBI single to put Oak Mountain on the board. Then, after Emma Hawkins reached off an error, Andrews hit an RBI single immediately after to score Bella Williams from third.

A fielder’s choice and a walk loaded up the bases for Graham with one out, and she drew a walk to cut the deficit to three. Ella Carrillo then followed it up with an RBI single to make the score 5-4 Alabama Christian.

With the bases still loaded, Sophia Williams hit an RBI single to score both pinch runner Rylie Redden and Graham, completing the six-run comeback and giving Oak Mountain the 6-5 walk-off win.

Sophia Williams also took the win with two strikeouts in two innings against three unearned runs, three hits and a walk.

Oak Mountain then got out to a much more comfortable lead in their next game against tournament hosts Pike Road.

The Eagles got on base to start the game thanks to an error, and after the next two batters got out, Rye was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Graham then opened up the scoring with an RBI single to capitalize on the free base runners.

While the second inning didn’t result in a run, a lead-off DuBose double and a Rye single in the top of the third set up Graham with runners on the corners.

The courtesy runner McGregor came home off a wild pitch during Graham’s at-bat, and after working the count to 3-1, Graham launched a two-run home run to left field to make the lead 4-0.

Pike Road got a pair of runs back in the bottom of the third off an RBI double and a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 4-2.

However, Oak Mountain pulled away once again to seal the win in the top of the fourth.

Hawkins hit a lead-off triple and Andrews singled to put runners on the corners to start the inning for the second straight inning. DuBose then hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 5-2.

Two batters later, Graham singled to reclaim the four-run lead and start a string of four straight singles for the Eagles.

The last two singles of the sequence, an RBI single by Monosky and a two-run single by Faith Cofer, put Oak Mountain up 9-2.

A walk then kept the inning alive, and an error after a ground ball on the next at-bat finished off the scoring and the 10-2 win in five innings.

Graham finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI and two runs.

Sophia Williams took the win across 2.1 innings of work as she overcome two runs, three hits and a walk. Kelsey Crain then came in for 2.2 shutout innings, taking three strikeouts against two hits and no walks.

That win set up a rematch with the one team that beat the Eagles during the Patriot Classic: Brewbaker Tech.

The pitchers dominated the first three innings as neither team could manage more than one hit before they got shut down. Madison Cummings took care of the first two innings, shutting out the Rams while allowing just one hit and striking out two batters before Sophia Williams came in during the third.

After a one-two-three top of the fourth, Oak Mountain came to the plate and broke through with the game’s first extra base hit: a sharp double by Andrews to left.

While the next Eagles batter got out, Andrews advanced to third in the process. Rye couldn’t bring her home even after hitting a single on the next pitch, but she set up runners on the corners for Graham.

Once again, Graham came up in a big spot with a bunt single that scored Andrews from third and gave her team a 1-0 lead.

Three pitches later, that lead became two as the Brewbaker Tech shortstop couldn’t handle a hard ground ball by Carollo, and the pinch runner McGregor scored to put the Eagles up 2-0.

While Graham couldn’t extend the lead to three after being called out at home, those were the only two runs that Oak Mountain needed as Sophia Williams held the Rams scoreless in the circle to secure the win for herself and the championship for the Eagles.

Oak Mountain will now shift its focus to area play action against Spain Park on Monday, April 8 at 6 p.m. on the road at Spain Park High School.