Area Sports

          By JIMMY WIGFIELD Talley Haines, who led Mobile Christian to five state baseball championships between 2015 and 2022, is returning as the Leopards’ coach, head of school Clint Mitchell announced Monday. Jason Smith — who followed Haines as Mobile Christian’s coach and took the Leopards to this year’s Class 5A…

“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” Proverb shared by Kenneth Baggett to Leroy’s players during the state tournament             By JIMMY WIGFIELD OXFORD, Ala. — That Leroy lost a softball game and a possible state championship Wednesday night was far less important than accepting the fact that the one…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD OXFORD, Ala. — Pressed to the wall once again, Leroy calmly wriggled out of calamity Wednesday and made the cherished ride from the outside fields of Choccolocco Park to the Signature Stadium to play for a state softball championship. After seeing a 3-0 lead evaporate, Brookelyn Keith’s two-out, opposite-field…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD OXFORD, Ala. — Leroy has a history of falling into the frying pan right away in the state softball tournament but on Tuesday the No. 3-ranked Bears whacked Hackleburg upside the head with it, hot grease and all, and might be poised to make some new history. Mariah Barnes and…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — After boldly stealing home for a 3-1 lead in the third inning and eliciting perhaps the most benign ejection of an opposing coach ever seen, Gavin Weinshenker and Mobile Christian seemed to have lit their boilers Tuesday and were poised to force a deciding game to…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — In the third inning Monday, Mobile Christian ace Zach McKinion turned to coach Jason Smith and issued an ominous bulletin. “I don’t feel good,” said McKinion, who didn’t pitch last week due to a strained tricep muscle and had escaped what could have been a…

Mobile Christian’s P.J. Brown lays down a bunt single in the opening game of the Class 5A semifinal series against Valley in Valley Tuesday. Brown’s single brought in the winning run in the second game as the Leopards swept into the state finals. (Stew Milne/Call News)   Mobile Christian’s Alex Bennett takes a rip at…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD MOBILE — Damien Gatson brought out the paddle in his first appearance at the plate Wednesday, then Mobile Christian brought out the brooms. Gatson spanked a solo home run leading off the first inning in the opener, sending rabbits and squirrels scrambling for cover in the woods behind the right-field fence.…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD CHATOM — Washington County coach Justin Whitsett looked around his sand-splotched field after his team’s season ended in a 5-3 loss to Reeltown Saturday in the state playoffs and what he saw encouraged him. Like the grass on the field, which had to be repaired when cranes trampled it to install…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD SARALAND — Reliever Cooper Henson resuscitated Saraland just as it appeared the hearse was backing up to the gate Friday night, coolly wriggling out of what could have been a bases-loaded catastrophe in the first inning by surrendering only one run. But Spanish Fort’s John Henry Winstead sucked the breath out of…