South Alabama Sports

__________________________________________ Caster overcame some serious health problems to become one of the state’s top players __________________________________________     By JIMMY WIGFIELD At an age when most kids were slinging mashed-up peas or Jello off their hands, Micah Caster was learning to splatter shots through hoops. Their dribble involved partially chewed food; his dribble involved a basketball. Caster was so engrossed in the sport that he drew pictures of courts and constructed them out of Legos. And as he grew, so…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD MOBILE — Faith Academy coach Matt Seymour isn’t sure if his baseball team is peaking at the right time but one thing is certain: Opponents are likely to get queasy thinking about playing the Rams in the postseason. No. 6-ranked Faith completed a sweep of No. 3 Saraland with an 11-1 mercy-rule rout on Friday to hammer rivets into the 6A Area 1 championship. Keith Ceasor whacked a two-run home run in the first inning…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD SARALAND — Trey McDonald kept a bulging blister from popping open on Faith Academy Thursday evening and brought the Rams closer to popping the champagne on an area championship. McDonald strode to the mound with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning and vacuumed up Saraland’s second and third hitters to save No. 6-ranked Faith’s 4-2 victory over the No. 3 Spartans before a packed and raucous crowd. The Rams (17-5, 5-0…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD MILLRY — Seemingly held together by some chicken wire and zip ties, Leroy’s Rob Moseley crunched a two-run double in the seventh inning to break an 0-for-10 slump and help the No. 8 Bears to an 8-3 win over No. 1 Millry Friday and give them the lead in the race for the 1A Area 1 championship. Moseley — who struggled to shrug off injuries to his elbow and hamstring and who had hit…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD LEROY — Brayden Huebner extricated himself from a bases-loaded predicament in the first inning, went on to strike out 11 with his rediscovered curveball, then delivered an inside-the-park home run to lead No. 8-ranked Leroy to a 12-2 win over No. 1-ranked Millry Thursday evening at Pop Powell Stadium. It was the first loss of the season for the Wildcats (19-1, 6-1 1A Area 1), who committed four errors in the Bears’ eight-run third…

Staff Report Saraland coach Jeff Kelly has been selected as Alabama’s head coach for the 38th annual Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic in December at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Kelly served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator in last season’s 26-17 Alabama victory — its fourth straight in the series — and might be the first person from Alabama to serve as a player, assistant coach and head coach in the annual game. He played in the 1996 Classic after graduating from Citronelle and fired a touchdown pass…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — A lot of things went wrong for Vigor in its 69-65 loss to No. 1-ranked Fairfield in the Class 5A state championship game Saturday at Legacy Arena but the most excruciating of all could be what happened the day before the game. Defensive specialist Brandon Purifoy injured his ankle during a practice at Vestavia Hills and without him, the No. 4-ranked Wolves couldn’t quite get their fangs into Tigers star guard…

          By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — Micah Caster’s three-point cloudburst finally dried up and underdog American Christian, with all its backdoor cuts and precise screens and ball fakes, had No. 1-ranked Jackson looking around in the fourth period to see where its deliverance would come from. It came from a 6-foot-4 sophomore nicknamed Red who brought the Blue to Clarke County. With the Aggies holding a precarious 44-41 lead, Keeyun “Red” Chapman emphatically rejected what seemed…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — Maybe Vigor’s Terrel Johnson spit through keyholes before the game. Maybe he threw his laces into the holes on top of his lime-green sneakers from across the dressing room. Maybe he banked paper cups off the toilet into the trash can. But one thing is for sure. “There’s not a shot on the floor he doesn’t like,” Wolves coach Jairus Jackson said after Johnson’s 33 points led No. 4-ranked Vigor into…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — DAR beat the last three Class 4A state champions to reach the state tournament. On Tuesday night, the Patriots might have lost to the next team to hoist the Blue Map. After 13 lead changes and seven ties, No. 1-ranked Jackson finally hammered in a decisive wedge with an 11-0 run going into the fourth period and went on to beat DAR 71-61 in the state tournament semifinals at Legacy Arena. “A lot…