Calhoun County baseball
- Updated: March 1, 2025
Jacksonville gets tournament’s first upset by seed, joins Oxford, Alexandria and Piedmont in Monday’s semifinals.
Calhoun County baseball tournament
All games at Choccolocco Park
FRIDAY, Feb. 28
First round
No. 12 Faith Christian 9, No. 13 Anniston 3
No. 11 Jacksonville Christian 15, No. 14 Saks 3
No. 7 Donoho 15, No. 10 Weaver 11
No. 8 Pleasant Valley 6, No. 9 Wellborn 3
No. 5 Jacksonville 17, Faith 0
No. 6 Ohatchee 12, JCA 2
SATURDAY. March 1
Quarterfinals
Jacksonville 3, No. 4 White Plains 2
No. 2 Alexandria 9, Donoho 5
No. 3 Piedmont 15, Ohatchee 0
No. 1 Oxford 15, Pleasant Valley 0
MONDAY, March 3
Semifinals
Alexandria vs. Piedmont, 5 p.m.
Jacksonville vs. Oxford, 7 p.m.
TUESDAY, March 4
Championship, 5 p.m.
Jacksonville-White Plains
JACKSONVILLE 3, WHITE PLAINS 2: Jackson Bonner continued his hot-hitting ways, and Jackson Askew pitched a complete game for give No. 5 Jacksonville (5-6) the first upset by seed in the tournament.
The Golden Eagles will play in Monday’s 7 p.m. semifinal against the Oxford-Pleasant Valley winner.
No. 4 seed White Plains (3-4) had beaten Jacksonville twice this season, but Jacksonville found the formula Saturday. It started with Askew limiting the Wildcats to five hits and one earned run with three strikeouts in seven innings.
“Jackson Askew was phenomenal,” Jacksonville coach Jamison Edwards said. “He went all seven, and we hadn’t had a guy to go seven this year. Some of that was by design. I was trying to get them going early, but seven innings, and I think he threw 72 pitches today.
“He was super efficient, attacking the zone and trusting his guys to make a play behind him.”
Bonner went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, singling home Xaye Lemon in the third inning and John Ducar with the go-ahead run in the fourth.
Bonner homered in Jacksonville’s tourney opener, a 17-0 victory over Faith Christian on Friday. He was a double away from the cycle in that game.
“Jackson is swinging it real well and seems to be seeing it real well,” Edwards said. “He’s hit some this year where he’s had some real bad luck. He’s hit it right at them. He’s hit it real hard but hit it right at them.
“He’s hit a couple the last two nights where it wasn’t real hard, but it found its way through. That’s what I told them. If we’ll keep swinging and keep attacking, that will happen.”
White Plains’ Luke Richardson also pitched the distance Saturday, allowing five hits and one earned run with three strikeouts.
Dalton Luker went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Crew Martin had a single with an RBI. Ashton Wallace doubled and scored a run.
— Joe Medley
Donoho-Alexandria
ALEXANDRIA 9, DONOHO 5: Alexandria got through what Valley Cubs coach Zac Welch called “survival Saturday.” Now, Alexandria must figure out Make Your Mind Monday.
Emmitt Pinson did the lion’s share of the work of getting the Valley Cubs through their 9-5 victory over Donoho in Saturday’s quarterfinals, allowing four hits, two earned runs and two walks with eight strikeouts in five innings.
Alexandria advanced to face the Ohatchee-Piedmont winner in Monday’s 5 p.m. semifinal, and Welch is looking for a starter on the mound.
“It’s to be determined,” he said. “We threw a quality arm at (Donoho) with Pinson, and that took a guy out of our rotation. We’ll have to look and see what we’ve got.
“Donoho is a quality opponent, and we didn’t look ahead, so we’re not real sure what we’re going to do next game. Until about 30 seconds ago, I wasn’t sure we were going to be there.”
Donoho took a 2-0 lead on Hayes Farrell’s two-run home run to left field in the top of the first, and the Falcons rallied for three runs to tie the game 5-5 in the top of the sixth on Sam Montgomery’s RBI single, a passed ball to score Farrell and Luke Farrell’s bloop single.
Alexandria answered with a four-run sixth. Jacob Cunningham was hit by pitch with bases loaded to make it 6-5, and Camryn Johnson’s sacrifice fly made it 7-5. Jacob Slaton drew a bases-loaded walk, and a passed ball scored the final run.
Cunningham had a double and two RBIs, and Slaton drove in two runs. Bray Goode doubled with an RBI and scored four runs.
Johnson and Garrett Haynes each had an RBI.
— Joe Medley
Ohatchee-Piedmont
PIEDMONT 15, OHATCHEE 0: Carson Cleveland and Cole Austin combined for a no-hitter in four innings of work, and Piedmont cruised into the semifinals.
The Bulldogs will play Alexandria in Monday’s 5 p.m. semifinal, and they will throw ace Brodie Homesley, Piedmont coach Matt Deerman said. Austin also still has pitches to spend after throwing 41 on Saturday, and Cleveland pitched 11 in one inning of relief.
Austin had four strikeouts and Cleveland two.
“I thought we did a real good job, defensively, on the mound, of executing the game plan,” Deerman said. “We were trying to pound the zone, and (Austin) didn’t throw but 41 pitches in the four innings that he pitched. That’s pretty efficient. That’s 10 pitches an inning.”
Piedmont mounted a six-run second inning and nine-run fourth.
The Bulldogs’ second-inning rally featured Carson Sanders’ RBI bunt single, lays down a perfect bunt single, Cole Austin’s RBI single, a bases-loaded walk to Brayden Estes, Kale Austin’s two-run single and an errant pickoff throw to score a run.
Piedmont’s fourth inning featured Kale Austin’s RBI double, a run when Cole Wilson reached on a bases-loaded error, Sanders’ three-run triple, Cole Austin’s bases-loaded walk, Estes two-run single and a bases-loaded walk to Bryant Waters.
“The guy on the mound for them (Xavier Luna) had good stuff,” Deerman said. “He had us, and we got some bunts down and played a little small ball, and that got things going, and we started finding some barrels.”
— Joe Medley
Pleasant Valley-Oxford
OXFORD 15, PLEASANT VALLEY 0: It was that day in Oxford’s baseball season. The really long one.
After falling to Lewisburg (Miss.) in the Perfect Game Showcase on Saturday morning in Hoover, the Yellow Jackets made their way back home and dispatched Pleasant Valley in the Calhoun County quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Oxford (6-5) will play No. 5 Jacksonville in Monday’s 7 p.m. semifinal on Choccolocco Park’s signature field.
Against Pleasant Valley, Nick Richardson allowed three hits with no walks and no runs in three innings in his first mound appearance this season.
Hudson Gilman’s night included a three-run double to make it 12-0 in Oxford’s 10-run third inning. He went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs.
Reid Maniscalco hit a two-run home run off of a brick scoreboard pillar in right field to highlight Oxford’s four-run first inning. He finished 2-for-2 with two RBIs and three runs.
Rocco Maniscalco was 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and two runs, and James Tapley went 2-for-2 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs.
Oxford also got a double, RBI and run from Zakaree Newton, and Marcus Lawler added a single, RBI and run.
“We’ve played five games since Thursday,” Oxford coach Travis Janssen said. “We played four over there in Birmingham. We left at 5:45 a.m. this morning, went over to Birmingham and did not play well this morning. We kind of played tired. We got back after 11 last night.
“I was curious how the energy was going to feel just because I haven’t been involved in too many games like this where you play in two different locations on the same day, and I was super pleased with that.”
— Joe Medley
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