By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
SPRINGVILLE – A many sporting events in Springville, you may hear the words “it’s great to be a Springville Tiger.” Indeed, this year, it is great to be a Springville Tiger.
The Tigers have already experienced success in two of the “big three” sports. The football team had its first non-losing season in quite some time and made it to the playoffs. Both girls and boys basketball teams experienced successful seasons and went to the playoffs as well.
The baseball and softball teams are now looking to continue that winning trajectory, having great seasons in their own right.
Baseball:
The baseball team is sitting at 15-6 on the season. This time last season, the Tigers were 11-12 and experiencing some growing pains. This year, the season started with a loss to Briarwood, a win over Southside and then a loss to Munford before they strung together eight straight wins over the likes of Moody, Clay-Chalkville, Mortimer Jordan and others. They lost 7A powerhouse Hewitt-Trussville to end the streak, but they Tigers have won more than they have lost leading to the 15-6 record.
The most recent game the Tigers participated in was a 16-11 loss to Tinley Park. The Titans, from Illinois, jumped out to a 6-2 lead and scored methodically throughout the game to take the win. Springville would not go away despite the offensive onslaught by Tinley Park, but they could never close the gap, picking up their sixth loss of the season. Despite the loss, coach Jonathan Ford is optimistic.
Ford said the following about the season the Tigers are having. “We came into the season very young, with just one senior, but we had a good bit of experience. The formula to our success so far is as old as the game itself. Pitchers commanding the zone, defense playing clean and hitters being tough outs. We are starting to learn what it means to play the game the right way no matter the circumstances. Two of our losses we had to look across the field and say they were better than us that day, but the others were due to not following the formula.”
Ford continued, “What makes our team tough is sometimes you never know who is going to get the big hit. Everyone is capable of getting the rally started. Carter Samuelson has led us on the mound while Alex Holland is coming on strong as well. We have a couple of sophomores in Ryan King and Grant Martinez who have really surprised us on the mound also. Kad Willis is as steady as they come. We know the success so far doesn’t matter if we don’t perform in our four remaining area games. If we can win those, we will win area and host the first round. We are excited about the opportunity that lies before us and hope to capitalize toing forward.”
The Tigers will take on Charles Henderson on Tuesday in their next game.
Softball:
The Lady Tigers are sporting a 13-5 record and find themselves ranked at the top of the ASWA 5A polls. The Tigers also won the county tournament last week with back-to-back wins over a very good Moody Blue Devils team.
The Lady Tigers opened the season with three consecutive wins before dropping games to Helena and Thompson, both on the road. They rebounded with a win over Saint Clair County but lost to Vestavia two days later. After that loss, Springville reeled off nine straight wins heading into spring break where they dropped games to Houston Academy (2-0) and Oswego (2-1), after beating Barneveld 10-1 in the Gulf Coast Classic. Both of those teams played great defense and contained normally high-powered bats of the Tigers.
Springville head coach JP Taruc said of his team thus far in 2024, “Defensively we have played well. We have great senior leadership with Kiley Christopher, Bella Bullington, Layla Bradshaw, Emmy Leopard, and Lani Otwell. As a team, we’ve learned a lot from our mistakes and we have grown as a team. I am extremely proud of them.”
Things get tougher for the top-ranked Lady Tigers as they will face Hoover on April 2 and travel to Hewitt-Trussville on April 4.