Photo by Kyle Parmley.
Mountain Brook's Clay Stearns (20) bats during a game against Chelsea on March 5. Stearns hit the walk-off home run against Oak Mountain to lift the Spartans to the area championship.
The Mountain Brook High School baseball team hoped to advance beyond the first round of the Class 7A playoffs this spring, but there was no diminishing what the Spartans accomplished on the diamond.
The Spartans won Area 6 in thrilling fashion, beating Oak Mountain 2-1 in the area championship game.
After sweeping Spain Park, 5-3 and 16-6 on April 19-20, they forced an area tiebreaker game against Oak Mountain the following day.
With each team sitting at 5-1 in area play — both swept Huffman and Spain Park and split in their two-game set against each other — the two teams squared off in a winner-take-all game on April 21.
On that day, the Eagles picked up an unearned run in the first inning off Mountain Brook’s starting pitcher Parker Garrison. And that was all he would allow.
Garrison hurled a phenomenal game, allowing just five hits and the lone run in eight innings, to go along with one walk and seven strikeouts on 104 pitches.
Mountain Brook got the run back in the second inning, as Colton Yeager scored on a balk. The 1-1 score held until the eighth inning, when Clay Stearns delivered the final blow.
The senior launched a walk-off home run to lift the Spartans to the victory and to the area title.
Fortunately for the Spartans, Oak Mountain pitcher Jackson Kimbrell reached his pitch limit of 120 pitches after seven innings. He struck out 10 batters and allowed just two hits, but Mountain Brook finally broke through for the winning run after he left.
In the first round of the playoffs, James Clemens racked up eight doubles over the course of the series, as it swept the host Spartans by scores of 9-5 and 5-2.
It wasn’t so much a case of sub-standard play by Mountain Brook, according to coach Lee Gann. The Spartans just ran into an opponent playing at the top of its game.
“We just played a really good ball team,” Gann said. “[James Clemens] has got players through the lineup that could hurt us, and they did. It wasn’t much of anything we did or didn’t do, but it’s what they did. They played two great games, and you’ve got to tip your hat to them.”
Mountain Brook returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 this spring, and three seniors have signed to play collegiate baseball. Left-handed pitcher Andy Hanaway is attending Rhodes College in Memphis, relief pitcher Aaron Shiflet will play at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, and Stearns, a catcher, is heading to Snead State Community College in Boaz.
The Spartans finished with an overall record of 24-12 and will graduate 15 other seniors along with Hanaway, Shiflet and Stearns. Thomas Graham, Hill Cater, Bo Meadows, Tyler Imig, Andrew Sink, Wilson Higgins, Harrison White, Phillip Bethea, Garrison, Walker McCraney, Stone Favrot, Charles Cobb, George Carbonie, Hughes Mitchell and manager Will Forbus were part of a strong upperclassmen group for Mountain Brook.
Despite the large senior class, the future looks bright for the Mountain Brook program, in large part due to the junior varsity team’s perfect 29-0 record on the season and Metro championship.
Will Baynes, Edward Berry, Curt Gann, Alex Gauld, Clark Griffin, Harrison Hodges, Beau Hubbard, Ford Kelly, Porter Phelan, Edward Reed, Emerson Richie, David Stone, Harrison Ware, Davis White and Will Yarbro played on the team, coached by Shane Stearns and Ben Callaway.
– Robert Carter contributed to this story.
