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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CALERA – The Calera Eagles started the year in dominant fashion with a combined no-hitter in a 19-0 win against the Montevallo Bulldogs before shutting out the Leeds Green Wave 10-0.

That came before a 1-1 day on Presidents Day when Calera defeated Marbury 4-0 before earning their first loss of the season to Pike Road in a tight 2-1 game.

Will Harrison and Conner Mosley combined to allow no hits in the five-inning game against Montevallo. Harrison ended the game with six strikeouts and just one walk in three innings while Mosley had four strikeouts in two innings.

The Eagles scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning after Mac Graham earned a leadoff triple. Dalton Ash hit an RBI sacrifice fly to score the first run of the night, Aspen Long and David Gutierrez earned back-to-back RBI singles and Joshua Rhoads had another RBI sacrifice fly to cap off the inning.

While the score was 4-0 after one inning of play, the Eagles didn’t stop there. After a one-two-three top of the second, Will Harrison took advantage of the bases being loaded in the bottom of the frame to hit an RBI sacrifice fly.

Tyde Harrison then walked to bring up Long with the bases loaded, and he scored Graham and Ash on a two-run double with two outs.

The next batter Gutierrez then plated two more runs off an RBI single to make the score 9-0, and Zach Sharpton ended the inning with an RBI single of his own to take the lead to 10.

The dominance on the mound continued in the third and led to Tyde Harrison’s two-run single with one out in the bottom of the inning. The lead would grow to 15 off a two-run double by Rhoads and another RBI single by Sharpton.

Brodie Dennis hit a bases loaded RBI sinlge in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 16-0. Two batters later, a Bulldogs error led to a Hatch ground ball and two more runs for Calera. Antorious Johnson then closed out the scoring with an RBI groundout.

From there, Mosley put the finishing touches on the no-hitter with three straight outs to win 19-0 in five innings.

The Eagles used that momentum to earn another run-rule victory against Leeds on Saturday, Feb. 17.

Calera scored with two outs in the bottom of the first off a Long RBI single to take a 1-0 lead.

The Eagles grew that lead in the next inning with an RBI double from Chase Herring, a bases loaded walk drawn by Ash and a fielder’s choice by Will Harrison.

While that play drew the second out of the inning, Calera wasn’t done adding to its 4-0 lead. Tyde Harrison hit a bases-clearing triple to score two more runs before he came home courtesy of another Long RBI single, which made the score 7-0 after the second inning.

A series of Leeds miscues led to more Eagles runs in the bottom of the third. After loading up the bases off three walks in the first four batters, the Green Wave hit Graham with a pitch to plate a run and let Ash score Sharpton from third to take the lead to nine runs.

The fourth inning came and went without any runs, but that still left Calera with a chance to trigger the run-rule with just one run in the bottom of the fifth.

Ash did just that to score Sharpton from second on a single to end the game with a 10-0 score.

Dennis earned the win with three innings of shutout baseball along with five strikeouts against two hits and two walks.

Two days later, the Eagles had a doubleheader against Marbury and Pike Road. The front half of the two-game set gave Calera their third straight win.

The Eagles got right to work in the bottom of the first, overcoming a two-out hole to score a run courtesy of an RBI single from Tyde Harrison.

The 1-0 score line held until the bottom of the third when Long hit a two-out RBI double to make the lead 2-0.

Calera continued to hold the Bulldogs scoreless and extended the lead in the bottom of the fifth. After Tyde Harrison reached base with two outs off a single, Long drove the courtesy runner Jaiden Brown home from first on an RBI double to increase the lead to three runs.

The Eagles then scored their fourth and final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth with one out thanks to an RBI groundout by Johnson to put the final touches on the 4-0 win.

In the second game of the day against Pike Road, Calera tied up the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the first after surrendering a run in the opening frame. The Patriots then broke the tie in the top of the fourth and saw out the 2-1 victory.

The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 21 with their first road game of the season at Thompson at 7 p.m. that night.