By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – The top-ranked Hewitt-Trussville Huskies look to earn an area championship and punch their ticket to the next round of the 7A state playoffs as they take on the winner of Tuesday’s Spain Park vs Chelsea elimination game, which will be played at Goldie Paine at 3:00 pm.
The Huskies beat Spain Park 16-6 on Monday night to push them to the eliminator against Chelsea and give Hewitt the afternoon off before the 5:00 pm championship game. If the Huskies were to lose the first game, it would force another game on Tuesday at 7:00 for the area championship.
Hewitt has beaten both Spain Park and Chelsea each time they have played them this season. They beat Spain Park by a combined 33-18 in three games and Chelsea 11-0 in two games.
In Monday’s game against the Jaguars, the Huskies faced adversity as Spain Park put five runs on the board in the first inning and held the Huskies to just a single run. Spain Park scored another run in the top of the third, answered by Hewitt with one of their own in the bottom of the inning. Then, the Husky bats went crazy in the bottom of the fourth with 12 runs. The Huskies added two in the bottom of the sixth inning to finish off the Jaguars by a score of 16-6. Zaylen Tucker pitched the first inning, giving up three hits and five runs and striking out two. Kate Hicks and Sara Phillips finished things off for the Huskies, combining to allow just four hits and a single run and striking out four total batters. Corey Goguts continued her late-season surge with four RBI, three of which came on a fourth-inning home run that brought Kenzie Noblin and Peyton Hull home. Tucker added three RBI as well.
Now, the Huskies (30-6 overall; 6-0 in area) will await their area championship opponents for the right to move on to next week’s North Regional in Florence beginning on Monday, May 6.