South Alabama 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 state championship series — will remain as the school’s director of operations and once again become Haines’ chief assistant coach. The changes will take effect…

“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 person who made it all possible is fighting for her life while showing her players how to “B Strong,” as their uniforms proclaimed. Longtime Bears…

      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 RBI triple that dropped fair by inches down the right-field line gave the Bears a 4-3 walk-off win over Hackleburg and sent them to the…

    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 Gracie Mitchell hit inside-the-park home runs and K.K. Guy twirled a four-hitter as Leroy routed the Panthers 11-1 at Choccolocco Park, marking only the second…

      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 determine the state championship. But the steam seen by the fans who wedged into Jim Case Stadium was coming from the Alexandria dugout, not the…

        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 bases-loaded catastrophe in the first inning. At the time, the No. 9 Leopards trailed No. 1-ranked Alexandria 2-0 in the first game of the Class…

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 a pitch during the opener of Tuesday’s Class 5A semifinal series at Valley. Bennett’s dramatic first homer of this postseason tied the game 7-7 in…

  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. Unlike the local animals, Tallassee could not find shelter until it got back on the bus. The No. 9-ranked Leopards gorged themselves on fat pitching,…

  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 new lights, the growth of Whitsett’s team from the dormancy of the depths is underway. Not since the days when Chris Wilson took the Bulldogs…

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 the Spartans in the final inning, striking out the last two batters to escape a bases-loaded minefield and hold off Saraland 3-1 to sweep the…